


If you're looking to request, you can do it here

by orphan_account



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort/Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-07-12 21:54:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7123888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You don't know how I write, or what I write like, or who I am in any way, but if you want a story or one-shot please do contact me. I would love to have a few requests lying around for when I get to actually write. I cannot guarantee that I will carry through with your request, especially if it requires me to develop a fully-fledged story, but one-shots I can definitely do.</p>
<p>If you're not interested, don't waste time on this, move on. I hope you find something you like in our archive. </p>
<p>If you are interested, the Prologue will contain more details about this. You may read some of the requested stories if you wish so. Thank you for taking your time to read, and leave a request should you want to. I don't know if you will like my style of writing, but I will try my best to please everyone. <3</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

I will not question your choice of story and won't judge you if you want me to include any relationships that others may not agree with. However, I have standards, and I must imply a few rules: 

#1: I will most definitely NOT write any sort of smut/lemon or anything too sexual. It makes me uncomfortable, and I don't think I should force myself to write something I don't agree with in this case. I can do fluff though, and a bit of romantic tension never hurts. 

#2: If you do not agree with my choice of writing or the person doing the request, please respond as nicely as possible. I won't have any fights going on in my comment section, let that be clear. 

#3: Please, be patient. It takes quite a while to write something I am satisfied with, and even longer for me to get into the swing of things. I am quite busy at the moment, so the gap between updates might be quite large at times. Nevertheless, patience is appreciated, and I will sincerely try my best. 

#4:If your request is not first in line, try not to get mad. Everyone's turn will come, unless I somehow get overwhelmed. It's very unlikely, but if that does happen, I will have to put everything on hold and finish the requests I will already have.

#5: At the moment, I only take Undertale related requests. Perhaps later I will take other requests as well, but as of now, I am only going to do Undertale and Undertale-related stories. I am a fan of the multiple AU's the fandom has made up, and I will write about those too if it is requested. I can do crossovers, as long as they stay within the limits of the game.

If you don't have an account on here and you can't be bothered to make one just for the sake of one comment, I completely understand. Also, you can send me requests on my Deviantart account or my Tumblr account as well if you wish. Just mention you were brought from here and I will try to respond to you. 

If you have any questions or want to make any requests, comment down below. Thank you. ~<333


	2. Regrets (part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chara finally convinces Frisk to do a Genocide run, but they don't like how it turns out. So, they RESET, and do another True Pacifist run, only to be possessed by the demon upon reaching the surface. They watch helplessly as Chara rains havoc upon their world over, and over again. They manage to stop the demon at one point, but not before having gone through some traumatic experiences, that have very dire consequences.
> 
> So, they start their final True Pacifist run, determined to never RESET again, all while dealing with the burden of sins they haven't committed, but have been led to believe otherwise by a certain demon child. They know it will become to much to handle at some point... and finally, they break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by Cyrus67. Thank you! ~<333  
> I have decided to split it into two parts, since I am pretty busy at the moment, just so that it will not take as long. This is only going to be a two-shot, so there will be no more chapters after the next one.  
> So, here's a story where Frisk breaks down, and everyone around them promptly panics.

The lab door slid open with a metallic _‘swoosh’_ and they were greeted by a very nervous-looking (but also enthusiastic) Royal Scientist, that urged them in shyly, fidgeting with her hands in excitement. They didn’t even bother to look where they were walking -they knew the place inside out- but instead sneaked a glance at the skeleton beside them, who seemed to be looking around the room with a slightly nostalgic air.

Ever since they’d learned that, when he was younger, Sans had used to work in the Lab with the previous Royal Scientist they’d been hoping to find a way to bring him over and show him around, maybe chat with Alphys and get to learn a bit more about his past. Even after all of those RESETS Sans managed to keep being as mysterious of a character as ever, never once letting any kind of information slip out, aside from the usual. Well… that wasn’t the only reason, they would admit.

They’d been hoping to find some sort of distraction to help get their mind off the thoughts that had been gnawing at the back of their mind ever since they woke up on that bed of golden flowers back in the Ruins. They had done a couple of Genocide Runs in a row before this RESET –the _last_ RESET, they dearly hoped- and they had been terrifying. After their first Genocide they managed to RESET and did the entire thing again, this time sparing every monster, like in their first run. But a few days after when they’d gotten to the surface, a good while into their sleep at their mother’s house, they suddenly screamed out with pain, feeling as if their Soul was being harshly pulled out of their body and crushed with a force they’d never felt before. They felt it cracking, breaking and ready to shatter like all those other times they’d died… but it refused.

They were thrown into a never-ending room of darkness, their Soul weakened and cracked, enveloped in a black sticky goo that held it in place. Their body was too weak to fight and their Soul was helpless against whatever force was holding it in place, and so the only thing they could do was breathe ragged breaths to keep themselves alive and look around painfully, trying to find a way out. Then they saw it… Chara.

The demon at the end of the Genocide Run had possessed them in their sleep and now it was standing in front of them, its hollow eyes and frightening grin aimed in their direction, somehow looking very amused. When they looked past them they froze in horror, seeing the demon’s hand hovering over the RESET button.

It had their body. It had their powers. It was going to RESET… and do everything all over again. And there was nothing they could do to stop it. They watched and cried helplessly as Chara killed all of their friends they had worked so greatly to gain… one time… two times… three times…

No! They couldn’t take it anymore, it was too much, too much! With what they thought would be their last breath, they pulled their Soul free from the black goo and smashed against the demon with all their force, knocking it over, away from the RESET and CONTINUE options. The last thing they heard was their soul shattering like never before and the outraged scream of Chara as they fell against the RESET button, sending themselves back onto the bed of golden flowers at the beginning of the Ruins.

That was it… that would be their _last_ RESET **_ever_**. So they shakily got up, and entered the room where they already knew Flowey would be, starting their final Pacifist Run. They had done things so carefully, feeling the weight of their guilt crushing their back. It wasn’t Chara who’d killed them all. Had they not started a Genocide Run in the first place, Chara wouldn’t have been there. Had they not cried weakly instead of stopping the demon, their friends wouldn’t have been killed. Had they not let Chara take over their body, they would still be living happily on the surface.

No… this was all their fault. And the further they progressed, the heavier the burden was to carry. They had the ability to cheat death, to manipulate the time-space continuum and to go through so many dreadful things just through the sheer power of Determination… but they were a child. How they’d gotten hold of those abilities they didn’t know, but the fact that they had them didn’t change one thing: they were a child. A small, burdened, traumatized, poor human child. How was one so young supposed to suppress all of this?

They were snapped out of their thoughts by Alphys, who was eagerly bouncing up and down in front of them, asking them to confirm that Mew Mew Kissy Cutie was much better than Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2. They looked down at their hands for a moment, to find that they were shaking. It was tempting to risk a peek at Sans, to see if he’d noticed, but they couldn’t bear look him in the eyes. _Him_ , of all people, they could never look in the eyes.

They nodded with some difficulty, finding it hard to keep it together any longer. They would have tried a petite reassuring smile, but upon reaching Waterfall, they noticed it was too hard to manifest any emotion without almost breaking down into tears. So they’d decided not to emote at all. But even that was becoming too hard to do. It was so, so much to handle…

They didn’t notice when Alphys grabbed one of her figurines and started giving a very elaborate and barely understandable description of the character.

They didn’t notice when Sans grinned a little wider, seemingly oblivious to their emotional struggle, and started adding things then and there when the scientist stammered over her own words.

They didn’t notice when their fists tightened and their head shakily lowered, wishing they could burry themselves seventeen feet underground and never resurface again, too burdened to face the smiling faces of the friends they had once killed in cold blood.

They didn’t notice, nor care when the two voices in the room became so distant that a disturbing, static noise began hovering around in their head.

They didn’t care when frightened, hopeful and sometimes threatening voices from other timelines came shouting at them, their last words  bouncing off the sides of their skull and getting louder by the second.

_“Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you here…”_

_“This world will live on…!”_

_“You can do a little bit better…I…I promise…”_

They silently wished they would stop, but did they deserve to have that luxury? No… no, they didn’t. So they let them shout, and shout, and the voices kept shouting, with more hope and hate and fear.

But they noticed, and they couldn’t afford not to care when they felt their sins crawling on their back. They didn’t deserve their friends, they didn’t deserve their mercy, they didn’t deserve their smiles… no, the only thing they deserved was to die. To die like the others had died, by their dust covered hands. To die in a world where there was no RESET, in a world where there was no SAVE or CONTINUE…

But that was impossible. They didn’t know how to stop those from appearing, and there was no other choice but to choose _something._ But they didn’t want to do that, they couldn’t put the others through that again, even if no one remembered it. Then again, they also didn’t want to go through to the surface with everyone and try to live happily. They didn’t deserve that life, dammit! They didn’t deserve anything, _anything_ the world had to offer! They were a killer, _a cold-blooded, **merciless monster killer**_!

“alphys!”

The reptile visibly flinched when Sans abruptly raised his hand to shut her up, his eye sockets having been locked on Frisk for at least the last ten minutes. Ever since the last RESET, the kid had been acting unusually distant, and they always seemed to be unsettled by something on their mind. No one else had noticed, and everything had gone just like in one of those countless other blasted timelines… until the kid reached Hotland.

Even he knew at this point that Alphys was supposed to guide them through the Core, help them with puzzles and make Mettaton go after them in a fake attempt to kill them. But the kid wouldn’t have it. For some reason, they decided to change things around this time and hang out with Alphys instead of going through the whole ‘Mettaton’ ordeal.

They had convinced Alphys to tell the truth and go on that date with Undyne, they’d made friends with Mettaton and in the end, even convinced Asgore not to fight them, offering to remain in the Underground instead of leaving through the barrier.

Everything had gone so differently… in another previous timeline, Sans would have probably looked into it. But now? Well, he didn’t really care anymore. Things didn’t look too promising for their escape, but the Underground was still hopeful. It wasn’t the surface, but it was something. Plus, by suffering down there with them, the kid would eventually make up for some of the things they did in the other timelines.

Sans stiffened a bit at that thought. He hated thinking about that. There had been so many RESETS he’d lost count, and the last few timelines had been the worsts. He was beginning to think that kid wasn’t a human kid at all, but a cold and heartless demon. And then they RESET one more time, one _last_ time, and did everything the other way around. They befriended every single creature there was and even cheated the ending, staying in the Underground instead of going free.

But they were acting so strange. That, Sans couldn’t afford not to care about. Sure, the kid had murdered every soul a couple of hundreds of times, but hey! in the end they made the right choice and even acted guilty as all heck about it. He could have almost sworn they regretted it. He didn’t think it possible- he thought it would never be possible for them to feel any emotion at all, let alone _regret_ , but they had been so hesitant to do anything ever since he met them by that bridge.

Heck, everything they did was hesitant. They refused to look anyone straight in the eye, they pondered on their every action like their life depended on it, they always stood so eerily silent as if their words could kill, and they walked with their shoulders slumped down and their gaze onto the ground as if they would break into tears at any given time.

He tried to ignore it, he tried not to care, like he was so used to doing, but at this point he was starting to worry. Not about the kid, of course (how could they ever feel anything besides hate for that creature?), but about the others. No one else remembered the RESETS, so they all acted as if the kid was oh-so-precious and small and _innocent_ , something Sans would definitely have argued against, if anyone would believe him that is. They were bound to notice something was wrong with the way they were acting, and he knew that it would really cause a fuss, especially since they had befriended everyone in the entire Underground. And with Mettaton hanging around them so often lately, the news would spread like fire. And, well… he couldn’t really afford that, so the only way to prevent it was to drag that thing somewhere private and get them to spill their guts before they made everybody unnecessarily worry about a murderous demon child.

Alphys stiffened, her eyes having followed Sans and having seen the little one standing still as a rock, head bowed and hand gripped tightly around their stick. They looked very on edge, as if they’d break down any second now. She carefully placed her figurine down on a nearby table and took a very nervous step forward, leaning slightly to get a better look at their face.

“F-Frisk? A-Are you o-okay?” she asked, not seeing the frustrated look Sans was giving her. Damn, it was really that obvious huh? Well, he _had_ been staring at them for the last fifteen minutes, so he must have made it pretty clear something was wrong. He tried to take a subtle breath to keep his left eye from glowing. That’s it, he needed to take the thing outta there before the situation got worse.

He was just about to speak up and excuse himself, claiming he had something to talk to the kid about, when they abruptly dropped their stick and wrapped their arms around their tiny body, shivering visibly. Before anyone could talk they let out a very strained whimper, that caused both monsters to widen their eyes in alarm, Alphys worried about them and Sans worried they were gonna do something stupid.

Then they took a deep breath and stopped…

And they threw their head back, letting loose a heart-shattering wail that echoed throughout the entire Laboratory and shook the walls to the core of the very building.

“ ** _I‘ M  S O R R Y!_** “

They fell to their knees and cried out between agonizing sobs and miserable gasps, finally too broken to keep it all in.

It was too much guilt…

It was too much pain…

Too much fear…

Too much hate…

Too many regrets!!!

Sans hastily stepped back at the sudden outburst, left eye flaring with bright blue magic, ready to fight them should the need arise, and Alphys let out a terrified screech of her own, practically jumping out of her skin, and somehow ended up crawling away on top of her computer desk, pressed fearfully against the monitor.

In her panick, she had accidentally pressed a square, green button labeled ON in black letters. The button had never been touched since she had become the Royal Scientist, as she had never had any use for it, ultimately causing her to forget it even existed.

When she had decided to mount hidden cameras around the Underground, she had been very unsure of the positions and places it would be best to put them in, so she had decided to do some research on the subject and discovered something very interesting.

Apparently, unaware at the time that monsters’ magic could influence the weather, the residents of today’s Snowdin had experienced a blizzard that came completely out of the blue, catching the monsters absolutely unprepared. The King had evacuated the town as best as he could, but the villagers refused to calm down, claiming that if another blizzard came His Majesty’s guards wouldn’t be able to come as quick and that they had nowhere else to live since the Underground had limited space. So, the previous Royal Scientist had the brilliant idea of setting up a connected line of speakers through Home, New Home, Waterfall, Snowdin and Hotland to prevent such a thing from catching everyone unprepared anymore. The people had been thrilled, and the speakers were set up immediately.

However, everybody had quickly adapted to the new weather, and there was never any need for evacuation anymore. So, the speakers were soon forgotten and she decided to take advantage of the strategically placed devices, attaching her cameras to them, later being very glad that she could see everything while still remaining hidden.

Nevertheless, even if they had been inactive for decades in a row, they could still very easily be activated by the simple press of a square, green button.

With a short rumbling noise, every intact speaker turned on at once, ready to broadcast any noise that came close enough to the microphone in the room. Which meant that Frisk’s wails and sobbing reached the ears of each single monster in the Underground. And each monster in the vicinity promptly _panicked_.

Mettaton had been going around through the Core dismissing the monsters he had hired to hunt down Frisk (on Alphys’ request of course) and turning off some puzzles, already striding confidently in his EX form when his hearing went static, causing him to stumble over, barely managing to stand upright. He was about to question it when it went away, instead replaced with the most ear-piercing scream the robot had ever witnessed in his life. His whole body froze, pink heart skipping a beat, before he turned around and darted for the elevator at the end of the hallway. He could have recognized that precious little starshine’s voice anywhere, and that scream was unmistakably out of pain. Whoever had dared lay a single finger on his beautiful darling would very promptly receive a high-deserver heel to the face, and then some.

Papyrus had been cooking in him and his brother’s kitchen back in Snowdin, quietly humming a song while letting out a faint Nyeh-heh-heh every once in a while, when he heard a high-pitched noise, like the one of a microphone turning on, and the painful scream of a child came crashing down on him. He dropped his pot and his spoon, all the spaghetti rushing to spread across the floor and out of the pot… He couldn’t care less. He hurriedly took off his apron and threw it carelessly in the living room as he burst out the door, not even bothering to close it. He knew that voice, and that voice meant one thing and one thing only to him: Frisk was in trouble, and they needed The Great Papyrus to save the day.

Undyne had gone to supervise the repairs to her house, but instead decided on something else since 01 and 02 had asked 03 and 04 for help, and were going as fast as they could. She had gone past the crystal cavern to pay Gerson a visit, as they hadn’t talked in a while, and was wondering what her _very_ old mentor was doing, when a high-pitched noise echoed through the caves. She had stopped talking and the turtle snapped to attention, just in time to hear the most heartbreaking sound his worn down ears had ever heard. He would have sent Undyne to see what it was about, but the fish woman had already left, her swift feet carrying her across Waterfall at maximum speed. Like hell was she gonna let someone torture her tiny human friend and broadcast it live across the kingdom in some form of cruel, twisted amusement or something. Not while she was still breathing she wouldn’t! Not a chance.

King Asgore had been standing tall on the bridge that connected his castle to the Core, quietly observing the monsters in New Home go about their lives, glad to see his people didn’t think of little Frisk as a threat anymore. He really was thankful the child had come along and snapped him out of it, convincing him that fighting was not the only option. They had succeeded where his wife had failed… the thought saddened him. Suddenly, a noise rang out, followed by probably the most distressed cry the king had heard in all his days. Not one of the screams he’d heard on the battlefield were as chilling as this one, especially since they had come from a child. A young, very familiar sounding… human child! The next second he was out the door, two Royal Guards at his side rushing to keep up with him. He would seize the being that had dared touch the little one at once, without a moment of hesitation. Frisk was the future of humans and monsters, they were to be protected at all times… he couldn’t lose another one.

All the way back into the Ruins, Toriel had been pacing back and forth for hours, contemplating whether she should follow Frisk or just stay in the Ruins, like she had done every other time. She had grown tired of it, and instead decided to head towards the exit door, hoping her friend on the other side would be waiting for her there. She was in desperate need for a few puns to lighten up the mood. She had knocked, but there had been no response, so she had sat down with her back against the large purple door, letting out a few saddened breaths every now and then. She had almost jumped when she heard a loud and static noise coming from outside, curiously pressing her ear against the stone then quickly recoiling back when a terrified wail came through, barely muffled by the thickness of the door. Her eyes had gone wider than they should have, and not even a second later she rushed out through the smoke and burning pieces of purple material, leaving hurried footsteps onto the snow. The child - _her_ child was in danger, Frisk was in danger. Oh, how foolishly she thought of herself for letting someone so young care for themselves out there! No matter now, she would save them. She had to… she couldn’t lose another one.

Back in the Lab, Alphys was cowering behind her computer, trying her best to cover her ears and block out the cries that kept coming from the human, too frightened to be worried about them. She was rocking back and forth, constantly whispering to herself that it was all fine, nothing to worry about, while Sans simply stood there in utter shock, left eye still blazing. What in the world could have caused such a sudden outburst?! He would’ve blamed it on the timelines where they had killed everyone, but at the time, they looked like they were oh-so enjoying themselves… gosh the things they’d said. Sans could recall every one of those times when they’d told him with the most twisted amusement how _fun_ it had been, and how _easy_ it had been, and how _convenient_ it had been when they’d killed his brother. And now they were **_sorry_** for it?! No, he couldn’t and wouldn’t accept that. There was no way, he was skilled at reading expressions, and those creepy smiles, that laughter, those last vengeful words… they had all been incredibly sincere.

But when he looked up at the kid’s face his magic shut down immediately. God they looked so broken… they were downright convulsing, gasping between cries, their never-ending tears literally soaking their tiny face. They couldn’t stand anymore and had fallen to their knees, screaming out apologies and regrets.

“I’M SO SORRY I DIDN’T MEAN TO I DON’T DESERVE YOUR FRIENDSHIP I DON’T DESERVE ANYTHING I’M A KILLER A KILLER A KILLER!!”

Sans lowered his guard even slightly, unable to do anything but stand there and watch, his eye having returned to normal. He was speechless, what could he say? What do you say to someone who’s done so many sins… but are so regretful about it? He tried to come to his senses and at least keep up with the kid, maybe actually grab a hold of some of the things they were saying. Had they been keeping it in this whole timeline…?

“I COULDN’T STOP THEM I COULDN’T DO ANYTHING IT’S ALL MY FAULT MY FAULT THEY KILLED EVERYONE AND I COULDN’T STOP THEM I’M SO SORRY I’M SO SORRY!”

Couldn’t stop them…? Killed everyone…? Stop who? And they were the ones that killed everyone…

Weren’t they?

“I WAS TOO WEAK I COULDN’T SAVE ANY OF YOU AND THEY WOULDN’T STOP THEY WERE THERE THEY WERE ALWAYS THERE CHARA WAS ALWAYS THERE AND I COULDN’T FIGHT THEM I COULDN’T STOP THEM!”

 ** _CHARA?!_** Sans choked and doubled backwards, grabbing at his chest, where he so distinctly remembered a deep cut going through his ribs. Chara…?! The first human… but it had died… and… its soul… that demon… those red eyes… but… so Frisk wasn’t… they didn’t…!

Oh. God.

“IT HURT IT HURT SO MUCH EVERYTIME THEY FAILED IT HURT SO MUCH THEY TOOK OVER MY BODY I COULDN’T STOP THEM AND THEY WOULDN’T LISTEN I’M SO SORRY THIS IS ALL MY FAULT MY FAULT!”

It cut deeper than any of those knives had cut through the bones in his ribcage. Frisk hadn’t killed anyone… no, they had befriended every soul and would care for them until the end of their days.

It was _Chara_ that had killed them all in those timelines…

 _Chara_ had taken over Frisk’s body and made it look like the kid was the murderer…

 _Chara_ was the devil that had brushed off his brother’s death like it was a game…

 _Chara_ was that cold and heartless demon…

 _Chara_ … **_Chara_ ** was the killer he’d faced in that hallway so many times…

Frisk really was that oh-so-precious and small and innocent child everybody cared about so much… and every time he had killed Chara in those previous timelines, it was Frisk who’d felt the pain, it was their body and _they_ were the ones that took every hit he had thrown at them… thinking it was Chara he was stopping.

Sans took a shaky step back, panting heavily as they looked up at the kid with terrifying realization. All those times… all those deaths… now wonder Chara kept going with unscathed determination, as if their arm wasn’t broken, or their side wasn’t bleeding, or bones weren’t coming out of their back, where he had aimed them. Chara hadn’t taken a single hit. It was Frisk, little helpless Frisk that had endured all of that. The more he thought about it, the worse it got.

How many times had Frisk been killed during those runs? How many times had Frisk watched their friends being killed by their own hands? How many times had Frisk been manipulated into saying so many dreadful things? How many times had Frisk witnessed him fight? How many times had Frisk taken a hit from him?

Frisk… the poor child. Suddenly, oh-so-suddenly, everything made sense. Those RESETS made sense. Frisk was trying to get everything back to normal and bring everyone happily to the surface. Those timelines where everyone died all made sense. Frisk was being controlled by Chara, and they were too weak to break free. All of that hesitation in their actions made sense. They didn’t dare take a wrong step in fear that they would end up hurting people, just like Chara had made them believe. All of that guilt on their face made sense. They thought they were responsible for all those murders. The different course of action in this timeline made sense. They were scared that if they went back to the surface Chara would take over them again. And that emotional breakdown just then made perfect sense. They were traumatized.

How was everyone –him included- so stupid? Even with all that power and determination, Frisk was a child, and a very young one at that. How in the world they had suppressed this so far was beyond him. They’d held everything in and put on the fakest of smiles, just to make everyone around them happy and to avoid all of their problems from rubbing off on the ones they cared so much about… _exactly_ like him.

Oh God. Oh good God.

“I DON’T DESERVE THIS POWER I DON’T DESERVE YOU ANY OF YOU I JUST WANT TO DIE I WANT TO DIE AND NEVER COME BACK I’M A MURDERER A MURDERER I’M WEAK I’M SO WEAK I COULDN’T STOP THEM I LET YOU ALL DIE AND NOW YOU HATE ME YOU ALL SHOULD HATE ME I DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE I DON’T DESERVE IT I DON’T DESERVE IT!”

“ ** _I JUST WANT TO DIE!_** ”

Sans somehow swallowed and straightened himself, blue tears prickling at the edge of his eye sockets. He’d done so many things to the poor child, hinting at them that he hated their very being with every single fragment of his soul each time he’d had the chance. And each time they’d caught the hint, and it added up to all of the sins they mistakably thought they’d committed. Sans would never forgive himself… Frisk really was innocent, they were young, innocent, traumatized, burdened, scared, hurt, wrongfully accused, small and utterly helpless against that demon. It was too much to carry, and they’d finally walked over the edge.

“frisk…” He found that when he spoke, his voice was as broken as ever, and his words were hoarse and whispery. Rightfully so, saying he was shocked would have been an understatement. Sans carefully began walking towards the wailing little body sprawled out on the floor, letting their words hit him like daggers. They wanted to die. They wanted to be erased from the world, thinking everything would be better without them, they wanted to erase their actions from the world, apologizing and blaming themselves over and over and over again.

The skeleton slowly sat down beside them, pondering for a bit whether he should touch them or not, before he ever-so-gently picked them up and wrapped his arms around them, hiding them a little in his warm hoodie. They clung to him like a lifeline, seeking warmth and comfort. They were too broken to speak, and instead resorted to crying and sobbing. Seeing this, Sans decided to hold them closer, softly rubbing their head while letting his own tears slide down his skull. How could he have been so blind…?

Noticing the child’s cries had stopped, Alphys risked a peek over her computer desk, seeing the two sitting down on the floor, Sans holding Frisk tightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she also noticed a green button was pressed down, glowing slightly. She carefully scooted over, managing to stand up shakily. ‘ON’ it said. What…? She suddenly became very nervous (well, more nervous than she was at least). Oh goodness what had she turned on? Was something going to happen? Why hadn’t she ever seen that button before? What did it activate?

Curiously, she turned her cameras on, wanting to see if anything was different, and started typing a command to show all screens at once. The monitor lit up and she let out a yelp, stepping back a few feet. Sans heard her and looked up, eye sockets going wide.

In every single place the scientist had a camera set up a very large group of monsters of all kinds was formed, staring directly at the lens. Some were murmuring, but otherwise everything was silent, and they were all staring at them with very worried and slightly shocked expressions. Gasps came from the groups and some jumped back when Alphys screamed, every pair of eyes still locked onto the devices. Both monsters in the lab noticed that Alphys’ scream had a slight echo to it, and Alphys looked to Sans, confusion written on her face. The skeleton somehow frowned, but continued to rub the human’s back in a soothing manner, noticing that their cries had slowed down.

“um… hello?” Sans tried, wondering if they could communicate through those things. Most monster groups looked at each other in perplexity, but even more gasps emitted from one group in particular, and monsters began mumbling amongst themselves. They both looked at the respective screen, and Sans recognized it immediately as being Snowdin. A camera was set up just above Grillby’s, tactfully hidden behind the sign. The next second he realised that the crowd could hear him, and in fact they could hear any of them.

“BROTHER, IS THAT YOU?”

Sans flinched and his head snapped up, trying to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. As to prove his point, a tall figure walked forward from the crowd, hands on his hips and eye sockets very intensely staring at the camera.

“SANS I KNOW YOU’RE THERE, I RECOGNIZE THAT VOICE ANYWHERE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS DEMANDS TO KNOW WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HAPPENING!”

Sans was about to make up an excuse, but as soon as his mouth opened it shut again. How did Papyrus know something was wrong? Hadn’t Alphys just pressed that button? A moment later it clicked. He vaguely remembered her moment of panick when Frisk had burst into tears, and recalled her frantically crawling away on top of her computer desk before hiding behind the huge monitor. She must have accidentally pressed it in a moment of alarm and hadn’t even realised. He didn’t think much of it, until he registered what that really meant. And it wasn’t a pleasant thing to register. And by the look she gave him, Alphys had registered too.

“T-The speakers…” Alphys whispered, at last remembering what the button was for. Papyrus seemed to somehow squint, having only faintly heard her.

“SANS, WHO IS THAT?”

On another screen, a robotic gasp could be heard, and if you looked over you could see through another camera set up near MTT Resort that another tall figure had walked out from behind the crowd gathered near the front entrance, also staring at what was supposed to be a hidden camera.

“Alphys darling is that you?” Mettaton asked, almost in sync with Papyrus. Sans kept staring at the screen that showed his home town, trying to process what he had learned. If the cameras also had speakers set up, and Alphys had activated them the moment Frisk began screaming, then every monster that was currently gathered around the devices had heard each and every single word Frisk had said, and since Alphys seemed to have those gadgets scattered around every area he knew of, it was likely that the whole Underground had heard the kid by now. And he was worried about people knowing… welp, too late for that.

Alphys glanced at the skeleton, a look of dreadful realization on her features. Sans looked back, knowing there was nothing more they could do, as things could not be unheard. The only thing left to do was make sure nothing else leaked out.

“turn them off…” he tried to say as quietly as possible. Papyrus and Mettaton, along with the rest of the people frowned and some leaned in closer, trying to catch bits of the conversation. Alphys kept staring at him.

“A-Are you s-sure that’s-”

“ **t u r n   t h e m   o f f   !”**

Alphys let out an ‘eek!’ at his suddenly terrifying voice and sparking blue eye, but hurriedly shut the cameras down and turned the speakers off. They managed to catch a last glimpse of the slight panick from some of the screens the moment Sans’ voice came out, as well as the skeleton and the robot alike flinching much like the scientist had done before opening their mouths to say something, right as the monitor went black. Sans quickly calmed his magic down, taking note of how Frisk cowered slightly at his voice, whimpering just like they had done before the outburst. He attempted to pull them closer and kept rubbing their back as best as he could, hoping it brought some kind of comfort to the poor thing.

“I-I’m s-s-o-o s-sor-r-y-y…” they mumbled softly under their breath, barely managing to link words together through their sobs.

“shhhh…” Sans immediately hushed them, not wanting them to feel sorry for something they hadn’t done, when he should be the one apologizing. Even if it would do no good.

“it’s okay, i’m here. i’m here…” he continued, hoping they would cease their sobbing soon before anyone found them like this. He remembered doing something just like this once when he was younger. His brother had come home hurt because of one of his antics and had basically collapsed in the living room, bursting into a fit of tears. He tried to replicate his behavior from when he had soothed Papyrus, wishing to the gods the kid would be as quick to recover as his younger sibling had been.

Alphys hesitantly scooted closer and leaned forward in an attempt to see the child’s face, not understanding one bit why they had behaved like they had. Unlike Sans, she was clueless about all those RESETS and therefore had no idea what could’ve gotten her human friend so upset. The whole time she kept rubbing her clawed hands together; a nervous habit of hers.

When they were calmed enough to breathe properly, Sans very carefully stood up, carrying the human in a position that was relatively comfortable, since being a skeleton didn’t make him the softest person around and Alphys was completely out of the question to carry someone when she could barely steady herself. He bounced the kid slightly to make sure they weren’t going to fall off then promptly turned around, heading for the exit door at the other end of the main hallway.

He didn’t know if it was the best idea, but if he had another choice he couldn’t think of one right now. He needed to take the kid someplace remote, where they could let it all out without attracting unwanted attention to themselves. Snowdin was most definitely out of the question, and Undyne would make a huge deal out of it if they decided to stay over at her house (it was burned to the ground anyways, so why risk running into her?) and he really didn’t think staying over at the Lab would be the best idea, since people could very easily work out that the Royal Scientist had placed those cameras around. And if Mettaton of all people figured it out, then wherever Mettaton went the crowd would follow. So, he thought, the most reasonable thing to do right now was to take a shortcut to the judgement hall and head into the castle rooms from there. The castle was technically off limits for outsiders unless they went there with business, and no one would willingly poke around His Majesty’s private quarters now would they? He’d been there before, he knew the place, plus the King was always eager to welcome visitors even if they didn’t come with reason or they would refuse to say those reasons out loud. Surely he would understand. Besides, when it came to Frisk, the King treated them as lovingly as he had treated his own children; parental instincts, he assumed. If he demanded an explanation, he was sure seeing the kid so beat up would make him forget about that pretty quickly.

Alphys took a step back when Sans raised, and was too nervous to speak for a few seconds, instead staring at him while he turned around and headed to the exit door. When she snapped out of it she almost chocked on her own words, feeling very pressured by the unknown of the situation.

“S-Sans! Where are you g-going? I-I m-mean I, um…”

She paused.

“I, uh, d-don’t really k-know what’s happening…” Sans didn’t even flinch. “I-Is Frisk okay? M-Maybe I can help… I-I mean I don’t, um, know what to do really… b-but I could t-try-”

“dun worry about it al. this has nothing to do with you.” Sans replied, stopping for a moment to look back at her. “if anyone asks, tell ‘em me and the kid were _bone_ tired and went to take a nap kay?” And with that he was out the door. When Alphys hurried to catch up with him, he was nowhere in sight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! ~<333  
> The next chapter will have every monster's reaction included, where they all meet up with Frisk and Sans, and listen to what the child has to say.


	3. Regrets (part 2)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY SHIT THIS WRITER'S STILL ALIVE AND KICKING?! THIS IS NECROMANCY AT ITS FINEST, I'M TELLING YOU!!!!!  
> Bet no one thought this day would ever come huh? Honestly, me neither... but it's here now!
> 
> Thank you from the deepest bottom of my being for being so unbelievably patient, I love you guys!!  
> Part 2 of Regrets, requested by Cyrus67. Thank you! ~<333
> 
> This is the last chapter of this story, and you better strap on tight, cause this is a long one; it's like, three times the size of the first one, good God... I'll get to the other requests shortly after this, I swear I won't make them take as long!!  
> But enough of that! Let's get reading! :D

Sans went out the door to the Lab and stepped into a room bathed in golden light, the faint sound of birds chirping in the background. He sighed, not very fond of the place, and stepped out from behind the pillar to rush the kid to the castle, really not wanting them to wake up there of all places.

But as soon as he stepped out he quickly backtracked and hid behind a pillar, eye flaring for a moment. Two Royal Guards had just entered the hallway, and were marching decisively across the golden-tiled floor, chatting excitedly.

“His Majesty’s orders were clear, I’m sure he had his reasons.”

“Terrifying though isn’t it? What if they died?! What of their soul then, huh?”

“Hey, stop thinking like that! We may have never met the little one, but from what I’ve heard –and I’ve heard plenty from everywhere- they are not exactly easy to defeat. Didn’t they battle the King?”

“Well… our king isn’t the one to willingly kill children is he? I mean, he did have a son…”

“Shhh!! We don’t speak of that! And what about the other six souls?”

“I thought those died before they reached the castle. Captain killed one or three didn’t she?”

The other guard sighed. Sans carefully peeked around the corner as they passed his pillar.

“Well it doesn’t matter now. His Majesty doesn’t want any harm to come to them, so whoever they were fighting will be in for some well-deserved trouble. None of our business anyways, unless we run into them.”

“True that. And now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure they convinced him not to fight before they entered a battle. Didn’t the king say so…? Lots of rumors say otherwise though.”

“Rumors will be rumors, we’ll just do our job. His Majesty will surely protect the little one with his life.”

“Hm… well I’m certain he couldn’t stand otherwise. Not after the prince-”

“I _said_ we _don’t_ speak of that!!”

Once the two were out of sight Sans tiptoed out of his hiding spot and started lightly jogging towards the castle, trying not to wake up the sleeping kid.

He hadn’t been there in forever, and he remembered he didn’t have any shortcuts there so he’d have to go the long way. He took the elevator to avoid being spotted on the bridge and then swiftly moved along, avoiding any guards as best he could. When he reached the castle, he sighed in relief and entered a random room, closing the door. He thought about locking it for a moment, but then if somebody noticed and didn’t have a key they’d probably attract attention. He pressed his back against the grey wood, glad he’d made it past everyone and scanned over the room.

Apparently he’d stumbled over the room that used to belong to the prince and… them.

He frowned, left eye sparking. Shaking his head, he moved towards the bed and laid the kid down on it, watching them comfortably sink into the sheets. He didn’t like thinking about it, but there wasn’t much else he could do right now without leaving Frisk alone. And if they woke up alone, God knows what could happen. So, he climbed up at the bottom of the bed and propped up a pillow, leaning against it in an attempt to relax.

This was a lot to take in. He hadn’t thought it through properly at the time. Heck, he couldn’t, poor thing was practically having a seizure in front of his very eye sockets! For the kid’s sake, he just pushed everything aside and took care of them first. And now they were taken care of (at least until they woke up) so he had to gather everything up and put everything in order… yeah, analyze the facts, pull together the strings and reach a definitive conclusion… heh. He sounded just like…

A quiet whimper came out from the child which made him snap to attention, wondering if anything was wrong. He crawled up next to them and grabbed their shoulder, turning them so they would face upwards. Their tiny yellow face was covered in tears, and the tears kept rolling down their cheeks, silently falling onto the mattress below.

 _“I’m so sorry…”_ they whispered hoarsely in their sleep. _“I couldn’t stop them…”_

Sans let out a sad sigh, shaking their little shoulders.

“c’mon kiddo, wake up.”

He really didn’t want to startle them after that breakdown, but if they were having nightmares about what happened during those timelines then it was better awake then sleeping. They didn’t wake though, so he shook a little harder.

“c’mon, talk to me buddy.” They continued to cry. “i’m sure those aren’t nice dreams… better wake up.” They shifted a little, but kept whispering. Sans let out another sigh.

“c’mon, c’mon snap out of it pal.” Still dreaming, still crying. He was hesitant, but shook them harder. “frisk wake up.”

They startled awake with a gasp, breathing shakily. Sans relaxed, glad he hadn’t been forced to yell. He watched them as they looked to their right, seeming to recognize the place, then looked to their left, spotting the skeleton. When they did they let out a scream and stumbled backwards, falling off the edge of the bed. Sans barely had to keep his eye from sparking at that… he was sure it would just make things worse. Frisk started crawling away, looking terrified, while Sans raised his arms up in a way he hoped was saying ‘I won’t hurt you’.

“hey, hey! easy there bucko, calm down…”

Frisk seemed to stop, but still breathed heavily, eyeing him like he was gonna jump out at them. Sans grinned a bit wider, trying to make it as less of a menacing grin as possible.

“it’s alright, those were just nightmares, it’s all gone…” he spoke soothingly, imitating those rare times when Papyrus had a nightmare instead of him. Heh… not many times.

“i won’t hurt ya, don’t worry…” Frisk relaxed a bit, sitting up reluctantly. “wow kid. ya look _bone_ tired.” Sans winked. “shouldn’t have woke ya huh?”

Frisk giggled and wiped their tears. Good. Puns were good. He lowered his arms and extended them out, a gesture that said he was open for hugs.

“c’mere, pal.”

Had Frisk managed to spare him in one of their Genocide Runs the hug wouldn’t have seemed as inviting, but since they’d been trapped by that black goo they hadn’t had the chance to pick Mercy. So, with a sob and a sad smile they quickly stood up and practically jumped into his arms, burying their face into the side of his hoodie. The skeleton breathed in relief and returned the hug, rubbing their back like he had done before, since it seemed to be effective. Poor kid… they’d gone through something no one should ever experience in their lives.

“alright kiddo, that’s it. it’s fine, it’s all fine. we’re all here, safe and sound.”

That seemed to calm them down, their breathing returning to normal. He broke the hug after a few more seconds and gave them a sideways grin, at last feeling comfortable enough to push his hands into his pockets and let them hang. Frisk gave them a petite smile, then looked both ways at the room and turned to him, a puzzled look on their face, as if asking how they’d gotten there. Sans sighed.

“welp, I’m guessing you don’t know huh?” he tried, already pretty sure of the answer. Frisk tilted their head, looking even more puzzled than before. Of course. Of course…

“right… well, after your little… breakdown…” he paused, awaiting a reaction. “i figured we shouldn’t really be staying at alphys’ anymore.”

Frisk didn’t budge, waiting for him to continue. He really didn’t want to… well, they’d find out eventually.

“you, uh, kinda gave us a fright buddy.” At this Frisk shrunk back, feeling guilty.

“i handled it alright, but alphys freaked out y’know. she, um, accidentally activated some speakers or something…” Frisk looked back up questionably. Sans only shrugged in response.

“got no clue how those work bud, but i do think they were attached to her cameras or somethin’, cause when she went to look through them… people looked back.”

Frisk quietly gasped, knowing that Alphys’ cameras were supposed to be hidden. The skeleton felt himself stiffen, burying his chin into the neck of his jacket.

“yeah, it wasn’t just the cameras they looked at though…” he looked up at the kid. “alphys went nuts when ya screamed, and she accidentally, um, turned them on if you know what i mean.”

Frisk’s eyes somehow widened when they managed to figure out where this was going. At that point, Sans just gave up with a long sigh.

“kay, long story short: everyone heard _everything_.” he spoke, defeated.

The child stared him in the eye sockets, an expression of fear mixed with guilt clear on their face. Everything… everything was a big word. Frisk themselves had no idea about some of the things they’d said back then, and if the whole Underground had heard them, some people were bound to have a good memory… they couldn’t know. They shouldn’t have known, they weren’t supposed to know!! Everyone knew now, and they would all hate them. They’d just caused more trouble… of course they had, that was all they were good for…

Frisk let out a few loose sobs, feeling their tears gather at the brim of their eyes for the umpteenth time that afternoon. Sans quickly took notice, and the child heard him curse under his breath.

“woah, woah, hold your horses kiddo! none of this is your fault, c’mon now, nobody can bundle up their feelings forever!” he tried to comfort them, but that just made them feel guiltier. The skeleton before them had witnessed his whole world crumble under their feet several times, and yet there he was, trying to soothe their pain. The pain they thought they so utterly deserved…

Sans looked at them and sighed yet again, finding it hard to put everything in order.

“frisk, look at me.”

The human in question slowly obeyed, sobs silencing. That was the first time they’d heard him say their name, and at some points they had even doubted he knew their name in the first place. He had such an apologetic face that Frisk felt even worse.

“alright, time for an i-believe-in-you-papyrus-style-speech of encouragement. You ready to sit through that?” he asked, an amused smirk plastered on his face. Frisk internally giggled, but let out no sound.

“i’ll take that as a yes then. Okay, let’s start from the beginning. Who was the one that freed us all before?”

The human let their head down, knowing this all too well.

“hint- hint: that’s you buddy.” he continued.

“who spared every monster they came across? Quick hint: it’s you again.” He silently congratulated himself when he saw their face slightly light up.

“and who was the one who got killed so many times trying to befriend everyone, hm? that was you if i’m not mistaken.” He saw them look back up at him, a glint of hope behind those fearful eyes.

“and who decided to bundle everything up and put on a smile for the sake of everyone they cared about so much just so that they could all be happy and live their normal lives in peace even though you were being crushed on the inside by the burden of past actions you were constantly regretting?”

At this, Frisk leaned back, clearly shocked. That had been… very… descriptive. The skeleton’s smirk changed into a sad smile.

“i know that strategy way too well pal. i know how hard it is, trust me on that one.” He watched as the kid went from shocked to confused, then to concerned. He knew what they were about to do, so he raised his hand.

“not the time, not the place. maybe later.” Frisk’s shoulders slumped.

“now, this is about you bud, and i ain’t leaving ya until you spill everything, got it? you need to let it out, and i’m the closest person who’ll understand… probably the only one too.”

Frisk let out a sigh, contemplating. Sans was right, wasn’t he? They thought he hated them… and yet here he was, ready to help them carry the burden of their sins, even after everything they’d done. They didn’t want to ask such a thing of him, but when they looked up to deny his proposal, they stopped.

He had a certain look in his eye sockets… a very familiar, very _determined_ look. Frisk saw their reflection for a split second, the image vanishing instantly, and it was then that they nodded as eagerly as they could manage, knowing there was no way of convincing him otherwise. Not when he had that look on his face. Sans crossed his legs and propped himself up on his kneecaps, signaling he’d shut up and listen. So, Frisk started to speak.

And they told him _everything._

Neither had any idea how long they’d been at it, sharing memories and past stories and feelings, discussing problems and possibilities and courses of action. Frisk told him everything they remembered in as much detail as their little mind could manage, letting Sans do the job of putting everything together into some solid facts.

 _Which_ took even longer than he’d originally thought because it turned out the kid knew a whole lot more than they were letting on to. He’d interrupted only a few times just to ask them if they were certain that they were human, since by God had they gone through some things he was sure no being would have been able to _withstand_ , let alone _comprehend_. Not that they comprehended everything, just some bits here and there that were ultimately kinda essential and all.

His skull was practically throbbing at the end of it. He was really outta shape, huh? A few decades ago he probably could have understood more than half that stuff with ease but he hadn’t been at it in ages, since his following routine had included mostly sleep and ketchup.

First thing he got out of all that was that the flower seemed to be the bad guy. Memories of that little weed were very foggy; apparently it had stopped Resetting long before the fifth human had fallen down, remaining hidden in the ruins until Frisk wandered in. He’d been able to remember that at least, and thought he had a lead, but then the kid completely blew his mind.

During that afternoon, Sans learned about the fallen prince and his fate, he learned about their final battle and how the poor thing had given everything up to break the barrier, he learned about just what Flowey was and why he was cursed to act like that, he learned about Frisk’s reason for their first couple of True Resets and what had happened when they finally gave up and went to the surface with everyone. Chara happened, that’s what.

Sans also learned about what Frisk was forced to endure during those Genocide runs and he felt awful about it. They’d broken into tears again, not managing to put all the pain into words, and Sans once again had to hug them and reassure them none of it was their fault. They finished telling everything else and admitted they felt very relieved at the end, with the skeleton giving them a playful ‘I told you so’ and a light punch on the shoulder.

And then _he_ broke into an endless series of rambles and occasional deep breaths (reminiscing so much was a huge effort for him), barely giving the poor child any time to speak. They’d been taken by surprise but listened anyway, if it meant Sans could feel as relieved as they’d felt by the end of their story. They learned about his childhood, his days working as an assistant at the Laboratory, about how life for the monsters was back then, about the very extended life span of skeletons and about the experiments that left only his left eye glowing. They learned about his past, his challenges, his struggles as being the only one to remember Resets-

“No you’re not.”

Sans stopped mid-sentence and shot them a very confused look, proceeding to shake his head and lean forward a bit.

“uh, what was that?” His brain had lost track of whatever it was he’d intended to say. He didn’t hear what he thought he heard… did he?

“I said you’re not.” Frisk repeated, staring at him as if he was supposed to know what they were referring to. “You’re not the only one who remembers the Resets.”

Sans let out a sigh, going back to his more relaxed position.

“i know kid, but you weren’t around during the flower’s resets to-”

The human shook their head violently, raising a hand so he wouldn’t just continue to talk.

“No, not me. You’re not the only monster who remembers Resets.”

When Sans abruptly froze in place and widened his sockets to a point where they shouldn’t have been able to go, Frisk started to stiffen too, worry creeping onto their back. They hesitated.

“You don’t… know?”

Were they not supposed to say that? They’d never promised to keep quiet, but they’d thought Sans already knew. Unless he never told him… but why wouldn’t he? Was Sans not supposed to know? Did he not know that Sans could also remember…?

Speaking of Sans, the skeleton didn’t even look like he was breathing, eye sockets still fixed on them. It was actually pretty terrifying…

“Sans..?” They waved a hand in front of him.

“Sans, are you okay?” He didn’t respond, so they snapped their fingers.

“Sans!”

He almost literally snapped out of it, bones making a weird noise as he bolted upwards and blinked rapidly. He looked back at them and grabbed them by the shoulders, a desperate expression on his face.

“someone knows? someone… remembers? wait, so it’s someone you know -is it someone _i_ know?” He spoke quickly; the child couldn’t keep up, all they managed to make out being the fact that he never told him after all.

They were about to answer when a loud ringing noise burst out of Sans’ hoodie, making them both stop and look to the respective pocket. Sans cursed under his breath, having completely forgotten he still had his phone with him. Curious how no one had called earlier than this…

He took it out and checked the ID, letting out a long sigh.

“it’s papyrus…”

Frisk looked at him, silently asking if he was going to answer. They were aware he had heard them earlier at the Lab so they preferred not to have to confront him, even though they knew it would have to happen eventually.

“welp, here goes.”

Sans also knew, so with shaking fingers he braced himself and put the phone up to where his ears would have been. He was already making up a temporary excuse… that he wouldn’t be having to use.

“ **S   A   N   S**!!!”

He jerked his hand away with a wince, thinking that if he had ears, they’d probably be bleeding. His brother was loud, but this was a whole new level of loud.

“WHERE IN THE NAME OF ASGORE HAVE YOU BEEN I WAS WORRIED SICK AND WHERE IS THE HUMAN I DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM ARE YOU AWARE OF THE RUCKUS THAT OUTBURST HAS CAUSED EVERYONE IS PANICKING AND UNDYNE SHOWED UP AND NEARLY THREW A BOULDER AT US AND NOW EVERYONE IS LOOKING FOR THEM AND THE KING HAS NO IDEA WHERE THEY ARE AND METTATON ALSO SHOWED UP AND ALMOST FAINTED AND WE WENT TO THE LAB AND DOCTOR ALPHYS WAS STUTTERING SO MUCH SHE COULDN’T TELL US ANYTHING AND EVERBODY’S PANICKING EVEN MORE NOW AND I SPILLED MY SPAGHETTI ALL OVER THE KITCHEN FLOOR AND GRILLBY WAS FURIOUS BECAUSE HE DIDN’T KNOW THERE WAS A CAMERA HIDDEN ON TOP OF HIS BAR AND ASGORE SOMEHOW CLONED HIMSELF AND HAD TIME TO SHAVE AND NOW HIM AND HIS CLONE ARE HAVING AN ARGUMENT AND THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE AROUND HERE OH MY GOD AND THE ROYAL GUARD IS MARCHING ALL OVER THE PLACE AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE YOU ARE AND I AM VERY MUCH HAVING A PANIC ATTACK RIGHT NOW AND I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT HAPPENED-”

Frisk stared wide-eyed at the phone as if it had dangling legs. Papyrus had a naturally deafening voice so they were used to hearing him yell over the phone, but they hadn’t expected him to be able to go any higher than that. Especially not to that extent.

They were speechless as they watched Sans hold the device at arm’s length and struggle in vain to interrupt his brother’s rambling.

“pap –hold on now –bro can you just – what do you mean cloned -papyrus calm down –papyrus for the love of –JUST SHUT UP!!” Sans had only screamed this loudly once before in his life.

Justifying why Frisk let out a terrified yelp and crawled backwards on reflex, only to fall off the edge of the bed and onto the floor with an unceremonious _‘thump’_. The skeleton barely took notice but they heard the previous voice go quiet, most likely shocked by the response.

“ugh finally… look, i’m sorry i yelled, i can tell you’re worried, but if you don’t give me a chance to speak i won’t be able to tell you anything.” Sans said more calmly this time, putting the phone closer to his skull.

“how ‘bout we take turns okay? i’ve also got some questions for ya, since you seem to be in quite the predicament at the moment… how’s that sound?”

Frisk sat up and peeked over the edge of the bed, in time to hear a sigh barely audible over the muffled voices of crowds in the background.

“VERY WELL THEN, BUT I GO FIRST!” Sans seemed strangely relieved at that.

“sure thing bro-”

“WHERE IS FRISK? ARE THEY WITH YOU? AND IF SO, ARE THEY ALRIGHT?”

Sans raised his hand, despite the fact that Papyrus couldn’t see him.

“woah, woah, one at a time! Yes, the kid’s with me and yes, they’re alright.” He answered, sneaking a contented grin at the child.

“kay, my turn. where are you right now?” he asked and shifted as the human climbed back onto the bed to listen more closely. Both could heard many different sounds in the background –it sounded like one of Mettaton’s more crowded shows. And they were always overflowing with people.

“I AM IN NEW HOME AT THE MOMENT, AMONGST A VERY LARGE NUMBER OF OTHER MONSTERS WHO SHOWED UP HERE TO SEE THE KING.”

His voice grew distant for a second as he looked at his surrounding to make sure he was right.

“I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO SPEAK TO HIM TOO, BUT HE DOESN’T SEEM TO KNOW WHAT’S HAPPENING EITHER… BY THE WAY, WHAT _IS_ HAPPENING? DID THE HUMAN GET HURT?! ARE THEY IN NEED OF MY AMAZING HEALING ABILITIES?” he spoke, worry clear in his voice.

“uh, it’s kinda hard to explain… you’ll just have to wait a little bit. and no, they’re perfectly fine, no healing magic needed here.” he held the phone out in front of him, so Frisk could hear better. “i’m with them right now, they’re safe.”

The child smiled and gave a thumbs up, despite the fact that Papyrus couldn’t tell. Sans moved around in a more comfortable position, though he couldn’t really find one.

“okay, me again. you said something about asgore… cloning himself?” he asked, unsure, and felt Frisk stiffen up at his question. They knew who Papyrus was talking about, and they were currently switching between surprise and expectation; surprised she had left the ruins, but also expecting she would be worried enough about them to do that. Sans also had a pretty good idea at who it was, since the kid had told him about her earlier. Naturally, he flushed blue when he realized he’s been telling bad puns through the _queen_ ’s door this entire time.

“OH, YES! I… DON’T REALLY KNOW WHAT THAT’S ABOUT. THEY JUST SHOWED UP WITH A FEW OTHER MONSTERS A COUPLE OF MINUTES AGO AND STARTED YELLING. ASGORE LOOKED VERY SURPRISED TO SEE THEM, WHICH WAS WEIRD, SINCE I ASSUMED HE WOULD HAVE BEEN AWAKE DURING THE CLONING PROCESS…”

There was a pause.

“OR, UM… SOMETHING LIKE THAT, I DON’T KNOW HOW THESE THINGS WORK.”

The skeleton looked to the child, but their head was down and they were twiddling their thumbs, clearly uncomfortable.

“WAIT A SECOND…” Frisk looked up from their lap at that, not liking the tone their friend had used.

“I’VE TOLD YOU WHERE _I_ AM, BUT I WOULD VERY MUCH LIKE TO KNOW WHERE _YOU_ ARE! YOU AND THE HUMAN, OF COURSE.”

They exchanged glances, not sure if they should tell.

“uh…” Sans scratched the back of his neck, trying to think of something. “we’re, um…”

“I CAN TELL YOU’RE ABOUT TO LIE SANS, AND I DON’T LIKE THE SOUND OF THAT!” Papyrus spoke through the phone, a hint of warning in his tone. “IT IS CRUCIAL TO KNOW ABOUT THE HUMAN’S WELLBEING, EVERYONE IS WORRIED ABOUT THEM! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT?!”

Sans was about to answer when something clicked. He stood still for a while, then quickly put the phone back up to his skull.

“gotta go, call ya later.”

“SANS! DON’T YOU DARE HANG UP ON M-”

_Beep._

Frisk crawled out of the way as he shoved the phone back into his pocket and hurried off the bed, quick to open the door and look back to them.

“c’mon kiddo. we’ve got somewhere to go, pronto.”

The child tilted their head but shrugged and got off the bed, taking his extended hand as he dragged them out of the room, not even bothering to close the door.

 _Someone will notice_ , they thought, but couldn’t really do anything about that. They went out to where the bridge started but didn’t go across, instead being pushed into the elevator to their left. They looked to the skeleton with a questionable look as they reached the other side in no time.

“there’s people down there kid.” he answered as they exited, an array of voices coming from below as if to sustain his point.

“if you’re spotted we’re never getting out of this mess alive.”

It was supposed to be a light joke, merely to add emphasis, but it brought up images of their friends turning to dust right before their very eyes, which certainly made things worse. They let out a frightened whimper, shaking their head so the images would go away, and felt their tears once again gather at the brim of their eyes. Sans noticed and, yet _again_ , cursed under his breath.

“woah kiddo, it was a joke, no need to cry!” he stopped only briefly, wiping some of their tears away then went back to pulling them along. “ugh, just… forget i said anything okay?”

They only nodded.

He dragged them into the judgement hall, as it was the only place close by where he knew he had a shortcut. Still, he wished with all his being he didn’t have to, because as soon as they stepped into the golden room the human let out another whimper and grabbed onto his arm like it was a lifeline, burying their tiny face into the sleeve of his jacket.

“don’t look pal, just keep your head down… we’ll be outta here in no time.” He whispered to them reassuringly, but began to suspect that hearing his voice while in the hallway was not a good idea.

They went around a pillar and stepped into a room glowing soft-orange, the familiar scent of burning cinnamon and fries hanging in the air. It was weird seeing it completely empty, but Sans found himself feeling a sense of safety upon entering the bar. Grillby’s was not where they intended to go though.

He carefully peeked through the entrance doors, looking around for any passing monsters. It was much weirder to see Snowdin completely deserted, and it most certainly felt very eerie seeing the snow-filled cavern devoid of life. Everybody had left towards the castle, he presumed, in hopes that the king would know the reason behind the child’s outburst.

For a second, Sans’ mind wandered to Grillby, who was missing from his usual place behind the counter. Papyrus had mentioned about him being very angry for having a secret camera hidden on his roof, so he deduced the fire monster had also gone to the castle to get things sorted out. A heavy feeling of dread suddenly hung over him, weighing him down. If the elemental had gone to New Home then he would’ve had to trek through Waterfall, and since he was a being made of fire…

He didn’t have much time to worry about his friend as he felt the human wrap even tighter around his arm, failing to prevent a pained sob from escaping. He made a mental note to search for some shortcuts next time he’d be visiting the palace.

He gently wriggled free and turned them around, lifting their chin so they would look up and be able to take in the scent.

“it’s okay kiddo, we’re out.” he said softly.

“look we’re not there anymore see, everything’s fine, we’re at grillby’s now and you like grillby right, you remember grillby don’t you?” He recalled how their face lit up (pun intended) every time they saw the elemental looking back at them from behind the counter with a friendly cackle of his flames.

Surely enough, Frisk giggled happily and wiped their tears away with a smile on their features, sniffing the cinnamon-scented air. They really did love Grillby, he had a very soothing, fatherly vibe to him and being back at the bar once again made them feel safe.

Sans breathed in relief, glad to have gotten that out of the way, and shoved his hands back in his pockets.

“i’m glad you’re feeling better kid, but we gotta head out. if i keep paps waiting any longer he’s gonna be mad… like, real mad, so let’s get a move on.”

Frisk hesitated to turn around but followed him out into the snow anyway, shivering as they exited the comfortable warmth of Grillby’s and entered the freezing cold of Snowdin. They looked around for a while then tugged at Sans’ hoodie, tilting their head in a questionable fashion.

Sans understood the gesture.

“oh, we’re going to me and my bro’s house for now. snowdin isn’t exactly bustling with activity so we won’t be spotted, and besides, i think we need to be someplace we’d both feel comfortable staying at.” Frisk nodded in agreement, walking alongside him.

As they went past the Librarby Sans grinned a little wider.

“and since we’re already here, i don’t see why we should _pasta_ up this opportunity.”

Frisk’s laugh echoed throughout the empty cavern.

* * *

 

Papyrus marched decisively through Waterfall, splashing water everywhere as he stomped through the numerous puddles scattered around. He kept a low muttering tone to himself, red scarf trailing behind him.

He never recalled actually being this angry with his brother.

Sure, he always frustrated him with his laziness and terrible puns, not to mention that awful incidental music he played every time he dropped a plate of spaghetti or something. And don’t even get him started on his constant visits to Grillby’s, his obsession with ketchup and his weird time-space-shenanigans, where he walked to the left and somehow ended up on the right.

Truly he was a pain to deal with, but Papyrus had never been upset with him to the point of actually considering snapping some serious sense into that skull of his. Quite literally. He annoyed him to no end, he wouldn’t lie, but he could never stay too mad at his brother, only making short remarks on whatever it was he was doing wrong.

Unlike this time. This time he wasn’t just annoyed or upset, oh _no_ , he was goddamn _pissed_! Not only had his brother put the human child in potential danger, but then proceeded to hide them away somewhere _and_ hang up on him in the middle of a conversation, not even mentioning where they were on top of that.

And then he went even further and left the place they were already at, going to some other place different than the place they had already gone to, which Papyrus still had no idea where it was and only knew that it wasn’t the place where they went initially, place he –again– didn’t know the location of!

…

His skull hurt. There was too much going on for him to handle that quickly, and he couldn’t fix anything if he didn’t know what there was to fix. The king didn’t know what was going on, Undyne had no idea how to solve matters, Dr. Alphys ended up fainting from having so much pressure put on her, Mettaton was making everything sound ten times more dramatic than it was, Asgore’s clone was constantly yelling at him and everyone demanded to know what was happening, even if no one had the answer to anything that was going on.

He audibly sighed.

And after all of that commotion, he gets a call from his brother telling him to come back to Snowdin because somehow he had brought the human child to their house for safety. And worst of all he told him to come alone, so he still couldn’t help anyone back at New Home. _Anyone_ meaning _everyone_ , since every monster in the Underground had gathered at the entrance of the castle. He didn’t even question how all of them had fit…

He muttered something unintelligible under his breath and was about to turn a corner when he stopped. Correction: when he _was_ stopped.

“Papyrus!”

The skeleton stopped in his tracks and swiftly turned around, not expecting anyone to have followed him. He’d taken advantage of all those hours of stealth training to sneak out of the crowds unnoticed (as unnoticed as the circumstances allowed him) and he had checked at least three times behind him to make sure he was alone through those tunnels.

So he was surprised at the sight of a monster struggling to catch up to him, while carrying an umbrella over their head and carefully avoiding stepping into a pond. They hadn’t technically shouted his name –their voice had sounded strained and still came out whispery- but Papyrus could tell that had been their intention, since they couldn’t stomp through all the water like he had to keep up with his pace.

“GRILLBY…?!”

The elemental caught up with him, chest rising up and down as he stopped a few feet away, since the skeleton was standing dead in the middle of a puddle. He seemed tired, but Papyrus couldn’t figure out if that sound of a breeze going past a camp fire was actually him panting or not.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? IT’S DANGEROUS FOR YOU TO BE IN WATERFALL… WAIT, WERE YOU FOLLOWING ME?” Papyrus asked, curious as to how the bartender had noticed his incredible stealth movements over all of the commotion back at New Home.

Grillby steadied his hold on the umbrella, his other hand going behind his back –a habit he had yet to rid himself of.

“I saw you sneaking past the crowds so I assumed something was wrong.”

Papyrus didn’t really talk to Grillby that much and the man was a quiet person by nature, so he wasn’t used to the sound of his voice. It sounded slightly hushed and soothing, and he obviously had to struggle to raise his tone too much. And even then, he couldn’t possibly reach as high as the other talked normally.

“I also heard you arguing with your brother over the phone earlier and I was hoping you would know of his whereabouts. I’ve yet to notice him within the mass of people back at New Home, and something tells me he wouldn’t be there anyway.” He glanced to the side, then looked Papyrus dead in the eye sockets.

“On other matters, where are you heading to? Back to Snowdin I presume.”

The skeleton shifted a bit. Sans did tell him not to bring anyone, but Grillby had followed him on his own. And he had tried to be stealthy anyways, so he was technically not going against his brother’s word. He sighed.

“WELL, YES, I WAS HEADED THERE. SANS IS THERE WITH THE HUMAN –FOR SAFETY I THINK HE SAID- BUT HE TOLD ME TO COME ALONE.” He looked up to meet the fire monster’s expressionless face, unable to tell what he was thinking without having proper features to guide him.

“I DIDN’T LIKE THAT IDEA, BUT I WANTED TO MAKE SURE THE HUMAN WAS OKAY… SOMETHING MAKES ME FEEL LIKE MY BROTHER KNOWS WHAT’S GOING ON, BUT HE WON’T TELL ME UNLESS I GO ON MY OWN.” He hoped Grillby would understand and leave him be, but at the same time he would have enjoyed some company. Especially if it meant someone else would find how to solve all of the problems going on at once.

The flame stared him down for a another good minute, until Papyrus finally realized it was a sign that he wouldn’t be able to get rid of him.

He surprised even himself when he felt a wave of relief wash over him; he didn’t like the look of things at the moment, so having someone else with him would have given him a bit more confidence. Besides, there was a certain thing about Grillby that made him feel safe, though when he tried to analyze it more closely it would fade away. He decided to dismiss it.

So, without any other words, he stepped out of the pond and turned for Snowdin again, with Grillby following close behind. He kept a slower pace this time, and his boots were completely dried off by the time they reached the snowy cavern.

* * *

 

Grillby knew what was going on.

Aside from the shock of finding out that someone had hidden a camera on the roof of his bar, he was probably the only one who took everything quite calmly.

He was one of the few monsters that’d heard Frisk talk, so when their voice came shouting from the speakers he quickly caught on to what was happening. The glass he’d been cleaning had shattered onto the floor when he dropped everything else and rushed out from behind his counter. His usuals were also there and they were quick to follow behind, once they got over the surprise of how swiftly the bartender had moved.

He thought at first that the little one was in danger, but when he heard what they were saying he knew better than that. He had warned them that they would break eventually, but they decided to disregard it with a wave and a sad smile. Grillby felt bad, but there wasn’t much he could do.

He’d seen how human souls behaved when they were being taken over. It wasn’t a pretty sight, but he was glad he’d remembered it, as it had been the only thing that’d given him any advice on how to help the child deal with what they had experienced. He taught them how to contain _it_ and how to keep their soul out of harm’s way, so that something like that didn’t happen again.

He was bothered by the fact that he couldn’t do anything else to help, but Frisk had been so happy he easily pushed the feeling aside. They’d hugged him and cried, careful not to let any tears touch him, and Grillby decided his job there was done and he let them go on their way.

Yes, Grillby knew why Frisk had broken, but he couldn’t tell anyone. Nobody would be able to handle it; it would just cause more chaos. And he hadn’t lied when he told Papyrus he had no clue about where Sans could have been, he hadn’t lied when he told Papyrus that he only assumed something was wrong.

Truthfully, he really hadn’t known where Sans was until Papyrus told him. He also didn’t know what was going on with the human child, since he hadn’t seen them at all after they left the bar and they only came to the bar once this timeline, which had been a long time ago. So he had no idea where they were –until, again, Papyrus had informed him.

Mostly, Grillby knew what what was going on. The thing he hadn’t known about –that troubled him the most–  was that Sans could also remember Resets.

That was what he meditated on while he followed Papyrus, grateful that the skeleton was avoiding the water instead of stomping through it.

During the first couple of Resets the elemental had noticed how Sans sometimes acted slightly different, but he always shoved it aside with a pun or a shrug or a sip of ketchup. Grillby hadn’t allowed himself to hope, and it had turned out for the worst.

He realized then that Sans had been covering it up because he thought Grillby didn’t remember. But he did, and he knew the loneliness and sense of powerlessness that it brought with it. He never wanted Sans to have to go through that, but he also never thought he’d have to since he _must_ have been the only one to remember… turns out he’d been proven wrong.

Papyrus obviously didn’t remember, but the fact that Sans had taken the child somewhere safely away from the crowds instead of acting just as panicky as everyone else proved it: he knew how to deal with the situation. And this time, Grillby wouldn’t hesitate to help anymore.

So, as they neared the blizzard that separated Waterfall from Snowdin, he covered his arms with his previously-rolled-up sleeves and tucked one into his pocket, needing the other free to hold the umbrella. He braced himself not for the blizzard though, but for the encounter and inevitable conversation they were about to have.

Papyrus was downright furious, and Grillby knew him well enough to know he would demand an explanation, whether Sans was willing to give one or not. And it would be impossible to explain anything properly without revealing to him the child’s ability to Save and Reset.

They neared the exit of the blizzard, able to see the house even before they were out of it. The explanation would have to wait; he had to talk to Sans at all costs, to let him know he was not alone in this, he had never been alone… and to apologize for not knowing sooner.

So, as Papyrus dashed to the house’s entrance, Grillby carefully shook the umbrella and then folded it neatly, not changing his pace at all. He watched as the skeleton flung the door open and yelled his brother’s name, following shortly with a flood of questions and rambles about how incompetent and inconsiderable his actions had been.

Grillby didn’t interfere, instead calmly stepping inside and closing the door behind him, then proceeding to place his umbrella with a few other clothes hanging from the wall. His hands went behind his back and he turned to watch the scene before him, waiting for Papyrus to stop yelling.

Sans was seated on the couch, failing to interrupt his brother’s furious rant, and Frisk was peeking out from atop the stairs, hidden slightly by the railing. Grillby deemed it normal; he never recalled seeing Papyrus this angry, and the skeleton probably acted even more cheerful than usual around the little one. Plus, judging by what they had just gone through, he assumed they wouldn’t want to face anyone.

Frisk happened to glance at him then, looking slightly shocked to see him there. They had probably assisted Sans’ phone call in which he told Papyrus not to bring anyone with him, and Grillby would have been the last one to volunteer on a trip through Waterfall under normal circumstances. So he had expected it. What he didn’t expect was what followed their reaction.

Their lip started quivering and they shyly stepped out from behind the rails, looking at him with one of the most miserable expression in the world. They seemed to be silently asking for the permission to come up to him and hug him, as if his presence alone would have been enough to solve everything. His eyebrows raised; an act of surprise.

He was observant, so he’d taken note of how giddy the child always seemed to be when they entered his tavern, the switch sometimes happening very quickly. One of the past times they’d entered his bar they had one of the saddest faces in the world, like a kid that had lost their favorite toy, but when they looked up to see him that changed all too suddenly, their frown switching to one of the happiest smiles Grillby had ever seen on a child.

He figured they must have been fond of the building’s atmosphere or the regulars that happened to be there each time they came… they had the same expression on their face at that moment, and just like when he realized Sans could also remember, he realized they were just happy to see him. He did recall getting a compliment from Dogaressa once, saying that he had a very fatherly demeanor… he thought it obvious, but she couldn’t have known.

He looked back at them and gave a friendly cackle of his flames, just like he did every time they happened upon his bar. It worked wonders, and they practically tumbled down the stairs, bolting towards him with tears at the edge of their eyes.

The brothers noticed and abruptly turned silent, looking to him just in time to see him crouch down and pick up the crying child, their hands grabbing onto his vest as they buried their face into the fabric. They let out a few sobs, but they soon ceased when he started cradling them back and forth, just like a parent would do to calm their crying baby.

He turned to the boys, grateful that they had stopped their talking. Sans seemed shocked beyond belief to see him there, which was understandable since he’d asked his brother to come alone, and Papyrus’ anger had melted away, replaced with a clearly worried look. He seemed more willing to care for the human than argue with his brother. Good, it meant that Grillby could find something relating to the child to distract him, and in the meantime he could talk to Sans.

He glanced towards the kitchen, and chose his words carefully.

“Papyrus, you wouldn’t mind making something for Frisk to eat would you?” he asked, putting the child back down. They sniffed, seeming a bit confused as they clung to his leg, but didn’t say anything against it. He figured they must have been actually hungry.

Papyrus was caught off guard by the question, looking even more confused than them.

“BUT… WHAT ABOUT-”

“I don’t believe you would rather let them go hungry while you talk to your brother than quickly make them some spaghetti. I can speak with Sans in the meanwhile, don’t worry.” He spoke, his voice now audible in the silence of the room. Papyrus looked to the kitchen then shot his brother another glare, noticing he hadn’t bothered to clean up his previously spilled spaghetti.

Frisk caught on to what Grillby was trying to do and walked up to Papyrus to grab his gloved hand, looking up at him with a pout, and just like that all the anger washed away.

“NYEH HEH! VERY WELL HUMAN, YOU HAVE PERSUADED ME!” he said, while picking up the child and placing them on his shoulder. They giggled happily, relieved to see him back to his cheerful self. “ THE GREAT PAPYRUS SHALL MAKE YOU A PLATE OF HIS FINEST SPAGHETTI!”

Grillby placed his hands behind his back as he watched Papyrus carry the child to the kitchen, hearing him mumble about the mess, then looked to Sans, who awkwardly got off the couch and shoved his hands in his pockets. He obviously didn’t know where Grillby was going with this, so he looked at him with a mixture of confusion and lingering surprise.

“uh… hey grillby.” He said eventually, giving him a sheepish grin. “i, uh… wasn’t expecting you to be here…”

“I know.” he replied, not giving Sans any time to continue the sentence. “Papyrus told me. Sans, I think it would be best to have this conversation upstairs.” He suggested, not waiting for an answer as he headed towards the stairs, like he knew his way around the house all too well. It wasn’t too big of a house, but still, he seemed used to it.

Sans was still surprised by everything, but followed him up the stairs anyway. They entered Papyrus’ room, because his room was horribly messy. Somehow, Grillby seemed to know that already…

Sans went to lean onto the cupboard close by, unaware of just what Grillby was trying to talk to him about.

“uh, sorry about that.” He said, referring to the argument from earlier. “i did tell him not to bring anyone-”

“He didn’t bring me Sans, I followed him here.” Grillby interrupted, ignoring the surprised expression lingering on the skeleton’s face. “Where were you?” he continued, going straight to the point.

Sans looked like he was expecting an entirely different question.

“um… look grillbz, it’d hard to explain. i know you’re confused just like everyone else, but the kid needs some time to gather their thoughts befor-”

“I _asked_ where you were, Sans.” Grillby retorted, crossing his arms over his chest, like a parent scolding their child for running out of their sight. “I expect you to answer the question.”

Sans shifted uncomfortably, feeling exactly like a scolded child. Eventually he sighed, answering without looking up.

“i took the kid to the castle.” He said. Grillby nodded approvingly, but Sans couldn’t see with his head down. “i just figured they’d need a bit of time to, y’know, calm down and all that…”

“You figured since the king was out front, everyone would be gathered around him, so the castle would be empty.” Grillby rephrased, watching Sans snap to attention, like he had read his mind. “And then you came to Snowdin because the place would be deserted and you felt more comfortable in your own home.”

Sans shook his head, then stopped leaning on the cabinet.

“how… did you…?”

“I know what happened, Sans.” Grillby was out of patience. He’d lived long enough thinking he was alone, and Sans was young when the Resets started happening. It hurt knowing he’d given up, letting him deal with the loneliness and misery on his own.

Sans looked completely lost now, and Grillby could easily tell.

“wha…?”

“I warned the child that they wouldn’t be able to bundle it up forever, I knew they would eventually break. The only reason I went to New Home was to see if you were there, since I heard you talking through those blasted speakers.” Grillby spoke, still mad about the camera placement thing. “I know what they did Sans. I know about the demon child and the pain they went through during all of those timelines, I was the one who helped them contain it so that it would never happen again.”

Sans was frozen in place, unable to move. Grillby wasn’t sure if his eye sockets were supposed to be able to enlarge that much.

“timelines…? wha…?” he mumbled, looking as if he was having an inner battle with himself. Grillby realized he was in denial, trying to think of any other possible explanation for what he was hearing beside the one that was true. His soul tightened… he didn’t even realize how badly he’d been suffering.

“Sans.” He spoke more calmly this time, his hands dropping to his side as he watched the skeleton blink a few times, then ever so slowly look up at him. He had one of the most hopeful and fearful expressions at the same time, as if whatever he was hoping for would be forcefully ripped from him any instant now.

“I know about the Resets. I can remember Resets.” Grillby said, letting out a sad sigh, that sounded more like a camp fire going out. “And I am so, _so_ sorry I didn’t tell you sooner…”

He was about to say something else when something collided with him, almost making him stumble backwards. He looked down in alarm, as everything had happened in the blink of an eye. He was surprised to see Sans, who just a minute ago was standing feet away from him, wrapping his arms around his torso (where he could reach the easiest). Grillby was even more surprised to notice he was crying.

Sans never cried. Even as a child he wouldn’t cry, only sniffing and whimpering when he got hurt or when something bad happened. Grillby didn’t know what he did when he was out of his sight, but he knew him well enough to know that if something occurred, he would just grin and bear it, no matter how hurtful.

He didn’t know he’d shed a tear earlier, when finding out about Chara, but that had been out of guilt and he was quick to wipe it away. Grillby had never seen him sobbing and shivering like that, more broken than ever… the guilt weighed him down. If only he had told him sooner…

He bent down and returned the hug, knowing that if he had the ability to cry, he would. He didn’t know why any of them remembered those Resets, but it didn’t really matter. He was thankful he’d found out when he did as opposed to never knowing at all.

Like he had done to Frisk, and exactly like Sans had also done to them previously, he rubbed his back in a comforting manner, letting his flames cackle softly. The skeleton clung to his vest like a lifeline, ocean blue tears flowing out of his sockets and onto the fabric. Luckily, Grillby had rolled down his sleeves when going through the blizzard, so the tears wouldn’t have any chance of touching him.

He heard Sans take shaking breaths, though still holding onto him tight… he probably had things to say.

“w-why didn’t y-you te-ll me so-oner…?” he whispered, barely managing to form coherent sentences.

“The same reason why _you_ didn’t tell _me_ sooner.” Grillby answered softly, his voice sounding whispery nonetheless. “I thought I was alone, and that nobody would understand… it would all be Reset eventually, I saw no point in telling anyone. Besides, it would awaken other memories too…” he added.

Sans was incredibly reluctant, but pulled back, wiping away at his tears with a swipe of his sleeve. He had grown so much, but seeing him stand there like that with tears down his cheeks, in the eyes of Grillby he looked just like a child that had seen too much for their age. He stood crouched and gave him a sympathetic smile, although his mouth was not visible.

“why do you remember too…?” Sans asked, looking where his eyes would be behind his glasses. “do you… think it’s because of…?”

“Because of _him_?” Grillby finished, knowing where his thoughts were going. “I wouldn’t know. It’s preferable we don’t think of it, it will not make sense anyway we look at it. I’ve learnt it is best not to question it.”

He’d thought about that time and time over during the timelines, and each time he did for too long, something stirred. His surroundings would eventually become more and more distorted, and he would start hearing static… sometimes he would even get light headed (pun intended). It unnerved him, so he decided not to linger on the subject for too long.

Sans opened his mouth to say something, but a loud noise cut him short.

“GRILLBY?!”

They heard him storm up the stairs even before he reached the floor, and turned to the door just in time to see it slam open, a worried and slightly frantic Papyrus showing through. He was going to say something to Grillby but then he abruptly stopped, his eye sockets locking onto Sans the moment he saw him.

His brother managed to stop from cursing under his breath, and then hurried to wipe the rest of his tears away. Papyrus had never seen him sad before, and if he had he’d forgotten about it once the next Reset had happened, so Sans realised it was a shock for him to see his older brother crying.

“oh, uh, hey paps.” he stammered and shoved his hands in his pockets, trying to prevent his voice from breaking. He couldn’t get out of this one with a pun, and he knew it. “sorry, we were just-”

He flinched as Papyrus marched over to him, swooping him up in one big, brotherly hug. Sans was very much surprised, as he glanced between Grillby and his brother, his face frozen in a mixture of surprise and confusion.

“I’M SORRY SANS, I DIDN’T MEAN TO BE THAT HARSH ON YOU. I SHOULDN’T HAVE YELLED AT YOU, I WAS JUST… WORRIED ABOUT YOU AND THE HUMAN, AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WAS HAPPENING... I’M _REALLY_ SORRY, PLEASE DON’T CRY.”

Papyrus’ apologetic tone made his brother snap out of his own shock. Papyrus thought it was his fault?

“whoa, whoa, whoa!” Sans interrupted, flailing his arms around to prevent anyone from talking. Mainly Papyrus though, who put him back down as he did so.

“calm down bro, this has nothin’ to do with you! you got nothin’ to apologize for, honestly... you had every right to be mad, don’t worry, it takes a lot more than an argument to get me all worked up like that. it’s not your fault, trust me on this one.”

Papyrus seemed hesitant, like somehow it was still his guilt to carry, but he eventually smiled, fiddling with his gloves.

“OKAY, I BELIEVE YOU… BUT NO MORE TEARS PLEASE!” he spoke. Sans smiled, hands back in his pockets.

“alright, no more tears.”

Grillby hummed tenderly, standing up and folding his arms behind his back as he watched the scene. He’d seen the brothers argue every time he caught them doing something together, either over puzzles or unfinished tasks, but in the end they cared about each other so much, and would never hurt the other on purpose… it warmed his heart (pun intended). If he wasn’t purposely hiding it, one would be able to see his soul practically _booming_ with pride.

“Papyrus.” He hated to interrupt something like that, but the way the skeleton had entered the room earlier hadn’t gone unnoticed. “Did you want to tell me something?”

Papyrus seemed lost, but then immediately remembered, eye sockets going wide.

“OH- OH RIGHT! PLEASE, I NEED YOUR HELP, I THINK I SAID SOMETHING AND THE HUMAN STARTED CRYING! I DON’T KNOW HOW TO CALM THEM DOWN, SPAGHETTI DOESN’T WORK!” he rambled frantically as he led them to the kitchen, where the child seemed to be. There was an untouched plate of spaghetti on the table, and the previously spilled noodles had been cleaned off the floor.

Papyrus was much faster than them, so as they entered the kitchen they saw him pick up the crying child off the kitchen counter, attempting to calm them down. It didn’t work, and they didn’t even hug back, their hands covering their tiny eyes as they sobbed.

Without even thinking, Grillby walked over to him and extended his arms, flames snapping worriedly. He knew they were broken, but the amount of times they had burst into tears that day was very concerning.

The child heard the sound of his flames and looked up to him, just as he walked over to pick them up from the skeleton. They whimpered and practically jumped into his open arms, clutching tightly to the fabric of his attire and letting their tears flow. Even Papyrus had noticed how they were more open to receive comfort from Grillby rather than anyone else, so he went with it.

The elemental held them close as he rubbed at their back, cradling them like before. His vest was already soaked -from Waterfall, Sans and Frisk as well- but he didn’t really mind. He was just thankful he had another shirt under that, otherwise the liquid might have come in contact with his flames by now.

“Hush now…” he talked softly, even more tenderly than before, with a voice that could lullaby someone to sleep. “It’s alright child, everything will be fine. You are safe, I’ve got you…”

Soon enough, to the relief of the monsters in the room, the child stopped sobbing and wiped away their tears. They even smiled and gave him a proper hug, murmuring an apology about his vest.

“wow, you sure have a way with kids.” Sans talked, a genuine grin stretched across his face.

“I’ve had my fair share of experience with that.” Grillby answered knowingly, while Papyrus appeared surprised at his statement.

“WOWIE! YOU HAVE KIDS?” he asked, proceeding to switch to a confused look when the two glanced to each other warily. He’d seen that look on his brother before, and it was usually when he was hiding something or knew something he did not.

“I have a suggestion.” Grillby began, catching the attention of all three in the room. “I believe you should have a proper talk with your brother, Papyrus, whiles I can take care of Frisk. Your actions were justified, yes, and I think you should receive answers to your questions.” he spoke, receiving an approving but yet slightly nervous look from Sans.

“UM… ALRIGHT.”

Papyrus had perceived that something was up by now, but he didn’t have time to ask about that now. He had too many questions regarding the human’s breakdown from earlier, and it was clear now that his brother knew exactly what had happened.

So, without any further words he joined Sans as they walked up the stairs and back to his room, muttering to him something about cleaning the mess of his own room. Sans just chuckled and closed the door, the nervous tone to his voice obvious. Grillby sat down onto the sofa, untangling the child from his arms and placing them next to him.

“Now Frisk, I already know most of what has happened and I understand if you do not wish to talk about it, but it would be helpful if you told me just what exactly you two have been doing since the incident with the speakers.” He spoke calmly, showing them he would not complain if they chose to stay quiet.

They casually nodded, however, and seemed much more open than when he had first made them speak their mind. They felt more relieved now that they had told everything to Sans, and knew which words to use so that they could do it more properly a second time.

Grillby was surprised of course, but was quick to compose himself and make sense of the information much faster than Sans. Frisk asked him if he was alright when they saw his flames dim down, and he told them that it was merely a sad story and that he would be fine.

Truthfully, he would easily recover and it really was a sad story… it was a bit more to take for him though, since he had known the prince personally. He had met the royal family for the first time back then, and the prince had innocently nicknamed him ‘Mister Fire Man’.

Frisk found it funny, since it got the giggles out of them, and Grillby just hummed in slight amusement, not finding the name one bit embarrassing. They could not hear the conversation upstairs, which was a pretty good sign; they weren’t arguing at least, so they decided to wait for them to finish before taking any course of action. Frisk had returned to the kitchen to eat the spaghetti, since they were actually hungry, and Grillby decided to turn on the television.

They could not return to New Home, as the child would have been assaulted by the crowds, so the only way to know what was happening was to hope that Mettaton was filming, since he’d seen him dramatizing about the situation very publicly. The channel wasn’t hard to find, as it was the only channel available, and he proved to be right.

The king had composed himself it appeared, and the queen stood at his side –though seemingly still upset. He listened quietly, and his flames snapped in concern as he took in the speech the king was holding. Every monster was to search for the child throughout the entire kingdom, and should they find them they would bring them safely to him, otherwise there would be consequences. King Asgore was not usually one to be harsh with his subjects, but considering the situation they were in he had his reasons.

Grillby beckoned the human over and they hurried to him. They had a similar reaction, but they whimpered at his harshness, thinking they would be yelled at or even punished… Grillby assured them otherwise, pulling them into yet another comforting embrace.

It just so happened that the brothers had finished their conversation by the time, so as Grillby stood up and turned to the stairs he saw them both looking down at the TV screen from behind the railing. Sans didn’t make any movement, but Papyrus moved his sight to the elemental, an unreadable expression onto his features.

He then took them all by surprise as he zoomed down the stairs and across the room, pulling the bartender into a tight hug. Grillby was shocked, Frisk was confused, and Sans just looked… lost for a second. The hug was returned, of course, but Grillby looked to the smaller skeleton for an explanation.

He just grinned and shoved his hands into his pockets, climbing down the stairs and walking up to the group. He gave a short and to the point answer.

“he remembers.”

Frisk was completely lost, but Sans told them he would explain later. As soon as the hug was broken they all had a short meeting about what course of action they should take, going over the possibilities while Papyrus wiped away a few orange tears. Grillby also looked like he wanted to say something else, but perhaps decided it wasn’t the time.

They couldn’t stay there forever, as they would be found, and they couldn’t tell everyone the truth, as some things were not meant to be said. Papyrus suggested going back to the castle, saying that at least the king should know, but Grillby shook off the idea. They’d have to trek through Waterfall _and_ New Home to get there, and both places would be crawling with monsters.

“Sans can take us there.”

The monsters stopped talking, and looked to the child. They had spoken so quietly, much alike Grillby; the only one who had heard them properly was Sans, who was closer to their level than anyone else in the room.

He frowned, but quickly realized what they’d meant, as they had a fearful expression on their face that they were trying to hide. To get to the castle they’d have to go through the judgement hall, and that was the last place the two of them fancied to go to. Still, it was the most efficient option available.

“uh… you sure kid?” he asked them, having seen how they acted around the place. They simply nodded, determined to go through with it. Papyrus and Grillby both looked confused by the statement, but he didn’t have time to explain.

“alright, if you’re sure…” he looked to the elemental. “i can get us all there, but you’re gonna have to hold on to the kid for that.”

“SANS, ARE YOU GOING TO DO ONE OF YOUR WEIRD TIME-SPACE SHENANIGANS ON US?”

“you got it pap. can you take care of the human?” Grillby raised an eyebrow, and Sans just grinned, waiting for his brother to answer. The fire monster spoke first, deciding to go with it for now.

“I can hold them.” He said as he bent down to pick up the child, who just grabbed onto his vest and buried their face into the material, knowing what was to come. The smaller skeleton nodded and then extended his arms.

“grab on, and whatever you do _don’t_ let go.”

They both took one of his skeletal hands and held on tight as he led them to the front door, using his magic to open it. They walked through the frame and stepped out from behind a pillar, walking into a room bathed in golden light, the chirping sound of birds resonating behind the windows.

Sans was perfectly calm as he let go of their hands and Frisk just kept their head hidden, trying to block out the chirping. The others, however, wobbled around with difficulty, seeming to have lost their balance. Grillby raised his free hand to his head, feeling a headache come over and Papyrus raised his arm to shield his eye sockets, dangling on his feet for steadiness. His brother stepped back a bit, giving them space to move around and time to come to their senses.

Papyrus quickly got used to the light and wasn’t very unstable on his feet in the first place, so as he composed himself the first thing he did was look around at the hallway in awe, mesmerized by the architecture. He had never been to the palace before, and therefore had never seen the judgement hall until then.

“WOWIE… HOW DO YOU DO THAT?” he spoke while looking up at the tall ceiling. Grillby just groaned in discomfort, flames snapping and cackling while he continued to rub his head.

“That is… highly disorienting.” he said, watching Sans keep up his grin, which wasn’t very hard considering he was a skeleton.

“WHERE ARE WE…? IS THIS WHAT THE CASTLE LOOKS LIKE?” Papyrus asked. Sans started walking to the left, the others following short behind as he spoke.

“this isn’t what the rest of the castle looks like, this is just the hall to the throne room. It’s still part of it though.” He explained as they headed to a golden archway.

“Hm… so you managed to get us to the castle after all.” Grillby murmured, showing to be quite impressed by the feat. Sans’ grin just widened at that.

“well, just figured it would be a shame to waste such a _golden_ opportunity.”

“OH MY GOD SANS WHY DID YOU HAVE TO RUIN IT?!” Papyrus threw his head back, yelling the words in frustration. Grillby hummed in amusement, while Frisk let out the faintest laugh they could manage. The elemental held them close, having been told about their past in that room.

“now, when we came here before, there were guards around. i doubt that’s changed, so we better settle it now, before we run into anyone: do we wanna be spotted or not?”

They turned a corner and went out to the elevator that led to the other side of the bridge. It was opened, so that meant no one was using it, and they stopped in front of the welcoming doors.

Papyrus was still looking around in awe, despite the lack of golden pillars and windows throughout the rest of the castle, and Grillby let out a thoughtful hum, rubbing the child’s back soothingly. Obviously Sans was expecting one of them to answer, and since Papyrus didn’t have any experience handling Resets, the choice was his to make. A glance was enough to notice that they were in an open area, so he thought quickly, hastily putting together a conclusion.

“Perhaps… it would be best if we stood hidden, at least for now. People will have questions, and if they were to learn of the truth…” he paused, flames cackling. He shot Papyrus a look, which both brothers noticed. “Well, Papyrus can’t be the only one able to remember.”

The skeletons looked to each other, both comprehending the gravity of the situation. Sans knew about it a lot better, as he’d had time to organize his thoughts, but Papyrus was still a bit in the fog about it.

From what he’d understood, something had taken over the human and forced them to do some… _horrible_ things, and they thought it had been their doing all along. That was the reason for their breakdown, and while listening to his brother memories seemed to come back, very distant and unclear, but he remembered nonetheless… he was very fond of the human, and understood exactly what his brother had told him, but other monsters would not be so forgiving. But at the same time, he too knew that they could not keep it hidden forever.

“However, we three cannot handle this alone. I say we should tell _someone_ , anyone who would be able to fully grasp what they hear…” Grillby paused, then shifted the human so he could look them in the eyes. “Child, is there anyone you think should know?”

Frisk looked at him then bowed their head, thinking of their friends. At first they had been too afraid to tell anybody apart from the skeleton and the elemental, fearing that they would not understand or they would lash out at them in anger. But now, seeing how forgiving Papyrus had been, they knew he would manage to convince the others that they never meant any of it.

They took a quick glimpse at the three monsters around them, then started fiddling with their fingers, whispering the names of their closest friends. The brothers leaned forward to try to hear them speak, whiles Grillby nodded approvingly, having heard them since they were in close proximity of him. He looked to the two skeletons, then stepped into the elevator, motioning for them to follow.

“They believe the king deserves to know, as well as the queen. Apparently, they seem to be able to remember certain things even without someone to tell them, which may prove to be useful. They also want to tell the captain of the guard and the Royal Scientist, since they appear to be good friends. They… also suggested Mettaton, but I doubt he would be very good at keeping secrets.” He finished, with an uncertain snap of his flames.

However, Frisk insisted that he would manage to do it for them, and hearing the determination in their tone urged the monsters not to argue against it. They reached the other side of the bridge and Sans risked a peek over the edge, looking to see what was happening. The crowds looked much more scattered than he had seen on their television back at home; he assumed they were searching for them. The king was nowhere in sight, as was the queen, and he hoped they were not somewhere in the castle, because they would be in big trouble if so.

They reached the king’s quarters and were relieved to find them just as empty as before, though the door to the children’s bedroom was closed, which raised a few suspicions on Sans’ part. He decided not to question it, and instead headed to the living room with the others, sitting down on a chair and shoving his hands in his pockets. Papyrus went to the kitchen to call Undyne and attempt to explain to her what to do and who to gather, while Grillby put the child down and stood beside him, hands behind his back. Frisk hurried over to the shelves on the right, seeming to be searching for a specific kind of book.

A short while passed, with the sound of Papyrus’ loud voice coming from the kitchen, before Sans looked to Grillby, who was standing casually next him, eyes on the child and flames moving calmly. He was unaware of it, but one could see the burning nostalgia (pun intended) behind his glasses as he watched the little one move around. Sans was no exception, so the second he took notice he bowed his head down, shoulders slacking with guilt. He took it all upon himself, it seemed, and Grillby saw the movement from the corner of his eye.

He put a flaming hand onto the skeleton’s shoulder, squeezing it in light reassurance. At first he flinched, not expecting the gesture, but relaxed when he met the fire monster’s soft expression. Still, he quickly looked away, thinking he did not deserve his empathy.

“I know what you are feeling Sans, and I understand that you think you are responsible for this… but please keep in mind that I had the same behavior as you. If anything, I am the one to blame, I should have been more observant.” He spoke gently, using a tone he had used a couple times in the past. Sans didn’t look up, but moved his head to the side, signaling he was listening.

“I know you wish to talk about it, believe me I do too and I think your brother has the same exact wish, but right now things are complicated and we need to sort this out first.” He gave his shoulder another squeeze. “We will talk all about it later… I _promise_ you.”

It was then that the skeleton raised his head, flashing him a thankful grin and wiping away at his sockets for any tears that threatened to show.

“thanks...”

The elemental smiled, although his mouth was not visible, and gave an affectionate cackle of his flames, folding his hand behind his back right as Papyrus walked out from the kitchen, phone in hand.

“UNDYNE AGREED TO COOPERATE, SO I TOLD HER TO GATHER EVERYONE… BUT, SHE SAID SHE WAS GOING TO DEMAND AN EXPLANATION ONCE SHE GETS HERE.” he added, his tone slightly nervous. Meanwhile Frisk had torn their eyes from the book they’d been looking through and were now switching to look between the three, showing the slightest hint of fear.

“i don’t think she’s the only one paps.” Sans spoke, wearing a blank expression. “alphys won’t be too direct about it, but i’m sure she’d also like to know what was happening. she witnessed the whole thing after all, and she was pretty shaken about it.”

“Everyone will be demanding things. The goal is for the child to be able to offer an explanation without breaking down again.” the elemental spoke, turning to said child as he did so. “Of course, we will be there to help as well.” He added when noticing their expression.

They all turned to look at the human, meeting their pleading eyes from the spot they were seated onto the floor, the book long forgotten by their side. The brothers both flashed reassuring grins to them with ease, considering they were skeletons and all.

“INDEED! FEAR NOT HUMAN! FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL ALWAYS AID YOU IN YOUR TIME OF NEED! NYEH-HEH-HEH!” Papyrus said, flicking his scarf and placing a hand onto his chest dramatically.

Frisk looked to Sans, who just grinned mischievously and shrugged.

“yeah, dun worry about it kid.” he said, jumping off the seat and heading out of the room. “i’m always eager to help _out_.” he finished, his words growing fainter as he headed out the door. The child snickered and Grillby shook his head in amusement, whiles Papyrus looked completely oblivious at first.

“THANK YOU BROTHER! FINALLY YOU ARE WILLING TO DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE FOR O-” his stopped mid-sentence, finger raised in the air. “WAIT…”

The human burst into an uncontrollable fit of giggles, rolling around on the floor and clutching their stomach, while the bartender’s hand flew up to where his mouth would have been, hoping it would muffle his laughter.

“ **S A N S!** ”

You could hear Sans’ laughter from the hallway while Papyrus practically fumed over his terrible joke. It took every fiber of his being not to consider grabbing his brother by the hood and swiftly throwing him off the bridge outside, with Grillby actually having to prevent him from doing that once or twice.

* * *

 

“and then i brought us over here, in the hopes that there wouldn’t be monsters marching all over the place, so that we could all gather up and talk it out. so… here we are.”

Sans put his arms back in his pockets, feeling relieved to do so after having gestured for so long, and looked around the table to meet every face staring at him. Asgore and Toriel looked to be contemplating, Alphys looked incredibly nervous, Undyne looked like she might actually rip apart that armchair this time, and Mettaton looked completely blank- his form of processing, as Alphys had mentioned earlier. Sans was sitting at the far side of the table, his brother seated between him and the queen, and Grillby was standing next to them, holding the fidgeting human child in his arms. As there weren’t enough chairs in the room, Mettaton was also standing up in close proximity to Alphys and Undyne, just in case the first fainted or the second burst out in a fit of rage.

Which almost happened, but luckily she controlled herself, only smashing her fist onto the table instead.

“I still don’t get it!” she yelled with a snarl. “You’re telling me this kid can come back from the freaking dead _and_ time travel?! If this is some kind of joke Sans, I swear to God…” she trailed off, clenching her fist as a warning.

“U-undyne, please, c-calm down…” Alphys squeaked shyly, hesitantly putting a clawed hand on her arm.

“No, Alphys!” she answered, making the lizard yelp and jump back, almost falling off the chair. “You might get all this weird sciency stuff but I don’t! This whole thing has the kingdom in a fit of panick, and telling them it all happened because this one little human child was messing with death is _not_ going to fix anything! Those things he’s been talking about- there’s no freaking way they happened, that’s impossible! How do you expect me to believe that?!” she growled, her nails almost digging into the table’s wooden surface.

“That is _enough_!” Asgore’s booming voice cut through the conversation, silencing the room immediately. “Shouting insults in disbelief will solve nothing! What Sans said is indeed peculiar, and it might be hard to comprehend it at first, but we must not argue over it. Surely there is a logical explanation behind all this, but until we find it I suggest we all calm down. That goes for you too, Captain.”

Undyne sat back down and lowered her head in shame, not saying another word. Asgore had rarely ever called her that, and usually it was under the worst of circumstances. She was still confused, but thought stupid of her actions when she went over the king’s words in her head.

Seeing him so infuriated, Frisk whimpered and firmly gripped the elemental’s vest, feeling him tighten his grasp on them protectively, although he knew the king’s intention was far from scaring anyone. Everyone looked to the child in worry, with Toriel practically burning a hole through her husband’s head right after. He shrunk down, looking ever so vulnerable under his wife’s gaze, despite his massive appearance.

“Sorry, little one. I did not mean to startle you.” he said apologetically, trying to speak more softly. Frisk hesitated, but hurriedly jumped out of Grillby’s arms and darted over to the head of the table, where he was seated, grabbing onto his cape as a form of an improvised hug. It was to tell they had forgiven him- and possibly to prevent Toriel from throwing a fireball at him too.

He smiled, ruffling their hair, and they let go, heading back to the bartender. It was very quickly made clear that they preferred to be close to him rather than anyone else, but nobody questioned why. So long as they weren’t breaking down, it was all good to them. While they watched him pick up the child again, Undyne sighed.

“Look, Frisk, I’m sorry… it’s just that, I don’t understand; how can someone rewind time to bring themselves back to life?” she spoke more calmly this time, but it still had a frustrated edge to it. “I mean, what makes them so special anyway? Why don’t any of _us_ have that kind of power?” she asked, looking around at everyone else.

“Well, darling…” Mettaton spoke up from behind, making her flinch, as he’d been very quiet throughout the entire meeting.

“For one, they got past me, that I may add is a _very_ impressive feat.” He bragged, swaying his hips around while she rolled her eyes at him.

“They also got past everyone else in the Underground, which I wouldn’t categorize as easy anytime soon. And, if what Sansy here said is true, then they also brought everyone to the surface a few times, _which_ involves breaking the barrier… and they did it multiple times! The little dear seems quite the special one to me.” He declared, adding a bit of an overdramatic tone to it.

Undyne looked pissed, but didn’t really have anything to respond with. Frankly, everyone else in the room was a bit surprised, having not expected Mettaton of all people to be so calm and collected about it… then again, he _was_ a robot.

“Well, though what Mettaton said is true...” Toriel spoke softly, wearing a thoughtful expression on her face. “And the child has proven to have powers we perhaps cannot understand, Undyne’s question still remains: how _did_ they get that kind of power?” she looked around the table, pausing to let anyone else get a word in.

“Q-Queen Toriel is right…” Alphys started, fidgeting when all eyes came upon her. “T-To be able to manipulate the time-space c-continuum at will s-sounds impossible… a-and it’s p-pretty obvious that it comes with a-a huge responsibility…”

She trailed off, rubbing her clawed hands together to keep herself from stuttering too much.

“A-Although… that would explain why F-Frisk broke down earlier…” she hesitated, growing nervous when some frowned at her statement. “I-I mean, well, t-they’re pretty young a-and, and...”

Undyne put a hand on her shoulder when she started mumbling, which luckily helped the reptile ease down. She took a deep breath, continuing her theory.

“It would b-be a big responsibility for a-anyone really, and t-they’re just a kid, s-so it’s actually impressive they g-got this far without l-letting it out…”

Everyone around the table seemed to understand where she was going, and they looked a bit surprised that they hadn’t seen it sooner.

“Of course… how could one little child handle such a terrible burden all by themselves?” Toriel breathed, her furry hand going up to her chest. “Oh they must be traumatized!” Her expression swiftly changed from concerned to downright terrified, an uneasy feeling washing over her.

“Oh my child… I let this happen… we, we had reached the surface… we were happy… I should have protected you, I should have… how- how could I let this happen?!”

Before anyone got a chance to speak to her Frisk once again jumped out of Grillby’s arms and raced to their mother, embracing her into a hug and pleading her not to blame herself- or cry. She hugged back, just thankful that her child was now safely with her, and that was enough to keep her from breaking under guilt.

“Okay, yeah we get it, kid’s determined…” Undyne interrupted, her frustration about the previous subject getting to her. “Still, _nothing_ we’ve talked about has answered my question and I still don’t know what to think of this whole thing!”

“Argh! Papyrus, how did _you_ manage to get it?! I’m getting a headache from all this…” she growled, though her anger was in no way directed at the skeleton.

Papyrus seemed caught off guard, as he’d said his part and probably didn’t expect anyone to ask him to say anything else, but was quick to gain his composure.

“WELL… HONESTLY, I DON’T REALLY GET IT EITHER… BUT I KNOW THAT FRISK WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING BAD ON PURPOSE, SO MAYBE I DON’T NEED TO UNDERSTAND.” he said, smiling brightly as he formed the right words in his mind. “THEY WOULD NEVER DO ANYTHING BAD TO ANYONE, AND I AM SURE THAT WITH THE HELP OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS THEY WILL BE ABLE TO HANDLE THIS-THIS… POWER, OR WHATEVER IT IS THEY’LL EVER NEED TO HANDLE! NYEH-HEH!”

Undyne looked like she was expecting an entirely different answer, while Asgore hummed thoughtfully, his low voice vibrating throughout the room.

“Indeed, perhaps…” he looked to the taller skeleton. “Papyrus makes a very good point. We may never understand how this matter of _Saving_ and… _Resetting_ works, nor why the child has got this kind of power in the first place, but we may never need to. As long as we can prevent this kind of events from happening again, then I see no point in struggling to understand something that we will ultimately never have any form of control over.”

“Perhaps, at the end of the day, it does not matter.”

The table was silent for a few moments, until every monster in the room fully grasped what the king had meant through his words. The brothers grinned, obviously pleased with the conclusion, the child looked simply relieved that the subject might be dropped and the elemental holding them gave an approving cackle of his flames, finding his king’s words to be the most reasonable solution to the matter. Alphys also looked relieved, while Undyne appeared conflicted; giving up on something wasn’t usually her thing, but maybe she preferred it over the headaches it caused. Toriel looked to her husband, silently implying that they would discuss this privately later on, and Mettaton was not giving off any dominant emotion, but luckily he was not against it.

Ignoring his wife’s implications for now, Asgore thankfully nodded to his subjects and went on to more urgent matters; if need be, the discussion could always continue later.

“Very well then, I am grateful we have managed to settle this. However, we have something else to discuss, so I must ask of you to stay a little longer.” He began, then turned to look to the bartender. “If you would be so kind sir, would you mind taking the human somewhere else? Their assistance is not needed now, and they do look rather uncomfortable here.”

Grillby gave a courteous nod and headed out of the room, not minding that the king had not remembered his name. They did not remember him at all, it was expected for them to treat him as any other subject… though he was thankful that he had noticed how uneasy the child’d been; they’d said it twice, but him and Sans were the only ones to hear that story, and they had known about the Resets for a long time. Sans did most of the talking, with him and Papyrus adding things once and again, but all eyes had been on them almost the entire time.

As he entered the judgement hall he ducked their head away, trying to block out the chirping of birds with his flames. He could feel them tense up whenever they were in that room, and judging by what had taken place there he didn’t blame them… if only they didn’t have to go through it to reach the throne room. He had not been there in a very long time, but aside from the queen’s chair having been moved to the back everything else looked exactly the same. He put down the child and retreated into a shadowed corner, watching them play and giggle happily through the multitude of golden flowers.

His flames snapped with nostalgia, a flashback coming back to him: three monster children and a human, playing tag around the thrones while he watched them, the other three adults having a lengthy conversation on the other side of the room. He shook his head, trying to get rid of those images he craved to have back in front of him; the past was in the past, there was no point in longing for it when it would not come back. He remembered when he had first heard those words, and he tried… but he would always find himself wishing to have back something… or someone…

“My, my, they’re having fun!”

He almost flinched at the voice, whipping his head towards the origin of the sound. Mettaton strode proudly across to him, placing a hand on his hip and turning his head to look  to where Frisk was playing happily, rolling around through the flowers. He stopped next to the elemental and they both watched them for a while, not bothering to stir up conversation, until it was the robot who spoke up once again.

“They seem quite relieved to be away from that awfully _boring_ meeting. I must ask though…” he turned, looking to the Grillby with curious eyes. “Why the throne room?”

“Why do you ask?” he said, raising an eyebrow in his direction. The robot gave a lopsided smile, leaning to the side in a very smug maneuver.

“Oh I’m simply curious, darling. You seemed to know very well where you were going… besides, I desperately needed an excuse to get away from there. Politics bore me.” He answered, rolling his eyes when talking about the room they had just left. The fire monster glanced to the child and proceeded to shrug, his hands remaining behind his back the whole time.

“Call it a hunch, I suppose.”

It was not entirely a lie: he did have a feeling the room would cheer them up, but the fact that said feeling was based around past experiences he would keep to himself. Mettaton appeared to doubt it, giving him a brief look through squinted eyes, but thankfully he didn’t question any further.

“Well one thing’s for sure: the little starshine definitely deserves a break. All this talking and explaining and breaking down _must_ have taken a toll on them.” He switched the subject, still making a very valid point.

“They are a child, there’s only so much they can take. Besides, they will probably need it.” Grillby agreed. “Depending on what happens next, they might have to reveal their powers to the entire kingdom… although I doubt that many will take it as well as we have.”

“Oh I _know_ darling!” Mettaton agreed, waving his hand to imply that it was obvious and talking like they were gossiping about God knows what. “I have plenty of experience with crowds, and judging by their reaction earlier I think we can all agree that they will not take it well. _Trust_ me; learning that some horrible demon thing took over the little angel over there and killed everyone in the entire Underground? That’s quite the information to take in if you ask me.”

The elemental’s flames cackled thoughtfully while he listened to him talk. He’d hoped that if the king and queen would be forgiving it would encourage other monsters to do so as well, plus Undyne and Alphys would likely be looked up to, since they had pretty important roles to play. But now that he thought about it, Mettaton’s words made a lot more sense… people would panick, some would be furious and others would be frightened; large crowds tend to do that –if what Mettaton said was correct- and if they waited too long rumors would start to spread, monsters would lose hope of ever getting to the surface. They couldn’t afford letting monster kind lose faith, negative emotions had a nasty impact on monster souls… he sighed.

“Then we will have to wait for the others to decide. Whichever course of action the king suggests we will have to follow, and there is always the possibility of that being one of his suggestions.” he said.

“Well then darling, we’ll just have to wait and see.” He replied and crossed his arms, both turning to look at Frisk who was giggling happily amongst the garden.

As if on cue, Asgore and Toriel entered the room, swiftly followed by the others. The brothers stopped when they spotted Grillby and the child stood to look at the others, suddenly losing all interest in the golden flowers around them. Asgore looked around the room to all who were present, checking to see if he had their attention.

“We have discussed about what the right thing to do would be, following the previous events of this day, and, well…” he began, now specifically talking to the child.

“We think we’ve reached a conclusion.” Toriel finished. The child nervously walked up to them, expecting to be told to do something, while Mettaton casually approached the group and Grillby walked up to Frisk, feeling that they would be a bit more comfortable with him around. He was right, as they immediately clung to his leg when he approached, slightly hiding behind him.

It was Sans who walked out of the group, the two boss monsters stepping aside to give him space.

“hate to bother ya kid, but tell me somethin’ real quick: when was the last time you saved?” he asked, his ever-so-present grin on his face and hands in his pockets.

Frisk mumbled an answer but had to repeat themselves a bit louder when it was made clear that no one had heard them. Sans looked like he was frowning, however that worked when you had eye sockets instead of actual eyes.

“tsk. that might be a problem…” he said. The child had Saved back at the entrance of the castle while they had been waiting for the others; not because it served any purpose, but they just did it out of habit while they were walking around. “…can you only go back to the spot you _last_ saved?”

There was a nod. The skeleton sighed, while Toriel gave them both a worried glance.

“Oh dear…” she whispered, thinking that it must have been bad if Sans was not comfortable with it. Frisk looked confused as to what purpose that information served, nor why it was so important. The elemental took notice, as he himself would have appreciated to be filled in on what they were planning to do.

“I believe it would help if you told them why that is so important. I myself would like to know.” he said, making sure his voice was soft while he spoke to the skeleton. Sans flashed him a brief smile, recognizing that tone.

“kay, long story short: we don’t think we should tell people about the resets and stuff, cause it’s most likely gonna cause panick and mayhem. so, we were hoping that with all the commotion you wouldn’t have saved until only before the, uh… y’know what.” he explained. “if you had, you would have been able to go back to that point and avoid this whole thing altogether. obviously, that’s not the case.”

Frisk bowed their head down, scolding themselves for not thinking about that sooner. They sniffed, blinking away the tears; of course they had to mess everything up, that was all they were good for. Everyone was taken by surprise at the sight of their tears, and Sans was quick as usual to curse under his breath.

“hey now, c’mon pal, don’t beat yourself up over that! you can’t do anything about it now, might as well leave it be!” he said, letting out a long sigh. “there _is_ an alternative to this… but you’re not gonna like it.”

The child looked up to meet his eye sockets, wonder and a bit of uncertainty showing through. Sans exchanged looks with those behind him then briefly glanced to Grillby, as if asking for permission to even utter a word. It was clear he himself was not fond of whatever idea they had agreed upon, but apparently it was the only solution left.

“well, uh… the –uh– the only way to really fix this is to go back before it happened. we… couldn’t really think of anything else, and we can’t afford to debate on this too long in case people lose it.” he shifted around, mentally preparing to not regret it. “kid, if you can’t go back to a previous save… then the only way to fix this is to _reset_ -”

“ ** _N O !_** ”

Everyone stepped back at the sheer force of the child’s voice, most with gasps or noises of pure shock. Sans barely managed to keep his eye from sparking bright blue, while Grillby’s flames snapped loudly in surprise. Apart from Sans and Alphys nobody had ever heard them talk higher than a whisper –aside from when they started screaming through the speakers- and seeing them while they did it was even worse than just hearing their words. They basically lunged backwards, turning away from them with their tiny firsts curled up against their chest, where their soul manifested while in battle.

“ _Please…they-they’ll come back… C-Chara they… no, no… t-they’re gonna… no… they’ll k-kill you… no, not again- please no!”_ they whimpered and sobbed, rows of tears streaking down their cheeks.

Their face was a mixture of pure horror and despair, their eyes bolting back and forth between the monsters in the room as if they could see them turning to dust right then and there. Luckily the royals didn’t catch the name, as it was probably overlapped by the crying, and were instead looking at them with growing concern.

Sans didn’t dare take a step forward, in case they were having some sort of flashbacks involving him, so he just turned to Grillby, silently pleading him to do something. The elemental understood, and with a speed no one in the room had been expecting he was down by the child, embracing them into a warm hug. They immediately clung to him and started crying, their tears soaking his recently-dried vest once again, whispering about how badly they wished the images would go away.

“Shh… I know child, I know.” he rubbed their back reassuringly, flames cackling with concern. Upon hearing his soothing voice the human shortly calmed down, though still keeping their head buried into the fabric of his outfit and letting out a loose sniff or two. He picked them up while their grip on him remained tight, turning to meet several faces looking at him (mostly impressed at how well he had managed). They knew the bartender was close to the child, but when Toriel –who they called their mother- was not the first one to soothe them, they wouldn’t think of him as the next obvious choice. Sans broke the silence, turning to face the others with a sigh.

“told ya the kid wouldn’t like it…” They had discussed it after all, and he did say it was a very touchy subject.

“T-They must be traumatized…” Alphys shyly spoke up. “A-And they’re so young t-too…”

“My child…” Toriel breathed, her hand automatically resting on her chest. “My poor child…”

“Frisk, look at me.” Grillby spoke, placing the child back down and kneeling in front of them so they could see eye to eye. They sniffed, wiping away their tears, and raised their head up so they could look at him.

“I know you don’t want to do it, I understand your fear; but I have told you this before: it will _not_ happen again. Did I not teach you how to contain it?”

They nodded, nervously playing with their fingers.

“And did it work?”

They nodded again. There was no need for a Reset to test it, their soul had never felt so free after the fire monster had taught them how to liberate it from _its_ control. Going full pacifist up until that point had been a struggle and had drained them horribly, seeing as the two practically battled over the soul. It’d hurt a tiny bit, but they could never thank him enough.

“Then there is no reason to be afraid, don’t you think?” he continued, hoping his words could reach them. “Frisk, those words were not supposed to be heard. Everyone has their breaking points, nobody will blame you for it and neither should you, but please understand that there is no other way out of this… some things are just not meant to be said.”

The child bowed their head down, contemplating for a while, then straightened themselves with renewed determination. Yes, they’d messed up, but they could fix it and they were the only ones who could. They trusted the elemental and they knew he would not lie to them like that; he’d made it clear he did not like going through Resets either, but right now it _did_ seem like the only option available, and even the others agreed to it so they couldn’t disappoint them.

They raised their head and gave a few quick and short nods, just to let the others know they would do it. Grillby’s flames cackled softly, gently ruffling their hair and standing up, pleased with the result of his little speech. It was faint, but the child managed to hear a few sighs of relief from their left.

Before anyone could say anything else they turned and walked out of the room, with everyone moving out the way and following close behind. The king and queen were first to follow, Alphys and Undyne coming next while Mettaton walked behind them. Last were Grillby and the brothers, who had waited for him so they could walk together. They went through the hallway (Toriel had to carry the child this time), up the stairs and out the door to the front of the castle, reaching the small batch of leaves where the human had last Saved. A tiny glowing star floated not very high above the ground, barely reaching higher than them. Nobody else could see it, but they knew it was there and it gave them a weird feeling down in the pit of their stomach.

They were fond of those little stars; they could Save and not fear being sent back in time before something they had hardly managed to get through, and they kept them alive. But to use the star for a Reset… it unnerved them. They hesitantly reached out to touch it, but quickly retracted their hand, blinking in confusion…

Why couldn’t they do it? This time it was not like they felt guilty, or were weighed down by the burden of their sins. Everyone knew about their powers now, and they all agreed that a Reset would be the best solution to the problem, they simply _had_ to do it… but yet, as they reached for the star once again, they drew their hand back, unable to even touch it. They fidgeted around, unsure of what to do or how to approach the situation… this had never happened before, so they didn’t know what they were supposed to do, and seeking advice from the others would be useless since they knew even less about how their powers worked.

The monsters around them grew unsettled, looking at them in concern.

“Is… something supposed to happen?” Undyne asked, raising an eyebrow with a bit of uncertainty. This was new territory for her, and she still didn’t fully grasp the idea that the kid could wind back time.

“My child, are you alright?” Toriel asked, leaning slightly forward to check for any movement that betrayed their emotions. The child turned around to glance at them all then looked back at the star floating in front of them, feeling that they were supposed to know the reason behind their hesitations. They happened to lock eyes with Grillby, whether by accident or by reflex they didn’t know, and the elemental was swift to see the problem. He kneeled down before them, tilting his head so he could look at them.

“Can you not do it?” he asked, his flames snapping uncomfortably. Frisk silently shook their head, at which everyone heard Undyne let out a frustrated huff.

“Are you serious? Don’t tell me the punk lost this power of theirs right when we need it, cause that would be inconvenient as all heck!” she spoke, crossing her arms. Grillby shot her a glance, then turned right back to the child, who was still looking at the star that only they could see.

“Are you scared…?” he asked, humming softly. With a bit of hesitance, they nodded, looking around at everyone for a bit. Grillby gave a nod himself, understanding what they were feeling somehow. “You are scared that something might go wrong… you are scared of having to go through everything all over again without anyone remembering this event.”

They nodded again, the others beginning to latch on to what was happening. The child was still able to Reset, but they didn’t want to do it. They were scared, because they knew that everyone’s memories would be Reset and they would be alone again, after they had all gone through the trouble of explaining everything they’d been through.

Without a second thought Grillby took their tiny hand, giving it a reassuring little squeeze. It took them by surprise, as they looked up to him with their eyebrows raised.

“Child, you are not alone and never will be. You have already made friends with everyone more times than you can count, it does not matter if they know of your powers or not. We are all with you, regardless of the timeline, and we will always be with you on your journey.” He spoke, flames burning gently.

Seeing as they hesitated still, Papyrus made his way to the front and took Grillby’s other hand, seeing as the human apparently needed theirs to do this Reset thing. The bartender was taken by surprise, quickly standing up.

“THAT’S RIGHT HUMAN! DO NOT LET THIS… THIS, _RESETTING_ BUSINESS BRING YOU DOWN, FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL ALWAYS BE YOUR FRIEND, WITH OR WITHOUT MY MEMORIES!” he stated loudly, practically beaming down at them. They looked at him with big eyes (however that works), and then looked to the side when Sans walked up to them too, taking his brother’s free hand.

“yeah, papyrus pretty much sums it up.” He said, grinning lazily and sending them a wink. “don’t worry, i’m rootin’ for ya kid.”

“Do not be afraid, my child.” Toriel said, grabbing the skeleton’s hand out of his pocket and earning a dumbfounded look from him. “No matter what happens, we will always be there to protect you.”

“Stay determined, child.” Asgore spoke next, hesitantly taking his wife’s hand. Luckily, she did not complain. “It will all seem just be like a bad dream.”

“Yeah punk!” Undyne said, grabbing onto both Asgore and Alphys with a wide grin on her face. “If you got past me, you can do anything! Besides, you can tell us the whole thing again- and this time you’ll know what reactions we’ll have too!”

“Y-Yeah, Undyne is r-right…” Alphys stammered, shyly looking up at them. “And t-this time there won’t b-be any problems... n-not that you caused any problems, um, it’s just that… well…”

She trailed off, mumbling to herself, and gave a little squeak when Undyne lightly nudged her to make her continue.

“U-Um… w-what I mean is, you won’t b-break down anymore, s-so there… um, t-there won’t be the need for another R-Reset… r-right?”

“Indeed darling!” Mettaton exclaimed, taking Alphys’ free hand. “Whatever happens, we’ll be there! You _are_ the star of the show after all! Why, everybody practically melts over you!” he joked, waving his hand around dramatically.

Looking around at all of their friends, seeing the smiles on their faces and hearing their encouraging words… it made the child warm inside, and somehow… they knew everything would be alright. They took a deep breath and smiled back at everyone; they would have hugged them all, but they were already all holding hands, so they squeezed the elemental’s hand instead. He looked down at them, flames cackling happily, then leaned in slightly.

“Come to the bar if you ever need me. I’ll be there.” He looked to the others briefly. “We will _all_ be there.”

The child nodded and widened their smile, looking around at the gathering of monsters once again. Then, they reached over and touched the star, free of any worries. They closed their eyes and felt a familiar tingling sensation before the warmth of Grillby’s hand faded away completely, replaced with the soft feeling of golden petals.

On reflex, the pacifist rose from the bed of flowers and started walking towards the entrance to the next room… but unlike any other timelines, this time they did it with a smile. They talked to Flowey, who was as always aware of the Resets, and waited patiently for the bullets that they knew were coming.

That was when it happened: the first change. The flower barely had time to explain how their soul worked before a fireball blasted him away, and the battle stopped. Toriel came rushing in and hugged them tight, visibly relieved that they were unharmed. And then, to the child’s utter shock, she started to talk about how weird it felt to be sent back in time with the knowledge of what was to come. When they asked her what she was talking about, confused at first, she explained to them that somehow her memories of the previous timeline had remained, and she could remember everything. It took a while to register, but when it did, you could have sworn you’d never seen a child so happy before. How…? How had their mother kept her memories- was it because they all held hands during the Reset?

Frisk huffed at that thought; if they’d known it would be so easy, they would have done it long ago. But that didn’t matter now; if Toriel had gone through, then everyone else had to have gone through as well. And with everyone having their old memories, everything changed.

Toriel interrupting Flowey’s battle was only the beginning. She then proceeded to go with them outside of the Ruins, taking Sans completely by surprise. The child had jumped into his arms, hugging him through a fit of giggles, and the skeleton had been so confused as to why they were so happy this time around. Then Toriel came up and explained, and Sans looked completely dumbfounded at first, but soon the kid’s giddiness rubbed off on him. They were not alone anymore. Grillby was shocked too, when the human came in joined by both the skeleton and the queen, which had attracted all the attention around.

Soon enough the whole kingdom had heard about it, and Frisk managed to go through the entire Underground without being attacked once. Papyrus was ecstatic as always, Undyne was super pumped that the whole time-defying-thing had worked, Alphys found it really interesting, Mettaton just called it ‘fabulous’ for whatever reason and Asgore was just pleased they did not have to fight.

And so the child found themselves going around through the castle, saying goodbye to everyone after the barrier had been broken; they knew how the surface would be, as they had experienced it before in another timeline (that was before Chara took over, of course), but they were still excited to bring everyone out once again. They went through the throne room, expecting to walk up to the group like always, but then remembered that this time there were a few things changed around.

Alphys and Undyne were busy explaining anime to Asgore, Mettaton had brought Napstablook along and they were chatting in the corner, while Sans had convinced Grillby to come with them, which is why he was now talking to the brothers in the other corner. Toriel saw them come in and smiled, kneeling down to pet their head.

“Are you ready to go, my child?”

They nodded.

“Have you said your goodbyes to everyone for now?”

Another nod.

“Very well then, I will notify the others.” She got up and walked towards the cousins, intending to interrupt their chatter; though it was mostly Mettaton talking. While she went over to the others, Frisk headed to the elemental and the skeletons, hugging Grillby around the legs. He was surprised at first, but gave a light laugh of amusement, also giving them a small pat on the head.

“I assume we are ready to go?” he asked, receiving a very excited nod from the child who appeared more than eager to get going. Sans grinned, hands in his pockets.

“gee kid, calm down. where’s the _fire_?”

The child giggled, while Grillby hummed softly and Papyrus gave a loud groan of complaint. His brother’s grin just seemed to widen at that.

“heh.” He looked to the human, who had grabbed the bartender’s hand unconsciously. “alright kiddo. lead the way.”

Frisk smiled happily, before yanking his left hand out of his pocket and dragging him along, with Grillby on the other side. Sans’ sockets widened, but he took their hand anyway.

“kay then, i guess we’re going together.” He concluded, earning a giggle in response.

The child loved their friends. They had all been there for them and they all cared about each other; and it was even better now that they knew how to keep them from losing their memories. But Sans and Grillby had known from the start. Yes, Grillby had been a lot nicer about it, but Sans never really hated them, he only hated going through those Resets and had mistaken their actions for Chara’s; had he known earlier, they were sure he would have been just as nice as Grillby about it all.

Even though they loved their friends all the same, somehow they felt like they needed those two to witness the surface with them first, and it felt right that they were there together.

So, the three of them led the way, the other monsters following close behind them. They walked through the open cave where the barrier had previously been, and steeped out into the sunset with their hands entwined…

And as the sun lowered behind the horizon, painting the skies in warm orange and bright yellow, the child realized that it washed away all of their regrets…

* * *

 

[The End](http://mayatl.deviantart.com/art/Regrets-The-End-631726380)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're done! Hallelujah! *throws confetti everywhere*  
> Btw, if someone knows, please let me know how to properly insert images on here because I am clueless and the site is not being helpful...  
> Meanwhile, just click on the link, it'll take you right to the picture.
> 
> Thank you for reading! ~<333


	4. Important

I am putting everything on hiatus. The reson is personal, I will not share it.

I will not respond to comments and all requests are being put on hold. I will take no more requests until I say so, so any requests you leave will not be taken into account. Do not expect any updates or activity from me until I am back.

Thank you for reading. I hope you understand.

**Author's Note:**

> My Deviantart account: http://mayatl.deviantart.com/  
> My Tumblr account: http://mm-aya.tumblr.com/


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